Review by Booklist Review
Using breathtaking photos from NASA's HiRISE camera, this unique look at Mars' terrain has something to offer a range of space explorers, from the April Pulley Sayre set, who like their images with short, expressive text, to older picture-book readers, unafraid of sinking their teeth into some real science, as conveyed in each spread's small paragraph of more detailed information connected to its featured photo. The larger, main text is descriptive and poetic, full of satisfying alliteration and consonance. For example, the first three spreads read, "Mars is buried bedrock, / bubbling gas, / and mighty mesas." Each phrase is perfectly paired with its dramatic photo, while the paragraphs offer facts and fascinating statistics. The "Mars is . . ." pattern occurs three more times, revealing more wonders with each page turn. Wonderfully textured and patterned, the book's pictures show swirling ice caps that appear embossed in gold, a valley's ridges gently rippling like crepe paper, and steeply sloped or craggy cliffs. Interestingly, the HiRISE camera applies colors to its photos that would normally exist outside the range that humans can see and enhances some of the colors we do, resulting in an amazing array of pigments within each picture. Informative back matter provides further information on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, the HiRISE camera, and a time line of Mars exploration.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Featuring mesmeric close-up photographs courtesy of NASA's HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this nonfiction picture book by NASA rocket engineer Slade offers rhythmic language interlaced with facts about Mars. Large monochrome type in a friendly rounded serif font guides readers through a simply worded tour of Mars. "Mars is buried bedrock// bubbling gas,// and mighty mesas," Slade begins on the first three spreads, as concise smaller-font paragraphs expound on each proffered phrase: "the Martian caps contain dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) rather than water." Textural full-color photos feature Mars's exposed bedrock, ice channels created by bubbling gas, undulating sand dunes, and more. Though the book elides many details (e.g., the scale of each pictured element) in favor of a more poetic, aesthetic examination of Mars, this volume may still pique the interest of aspiring astronauts and young space hobbyists. Ages 6--10. (Apr.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2--4--Mars is a planet where the surface has more to it than meets the eye. This book provides factual information about Mars paired with gorgeous photos of the geographic wonders that envelope various parts of the red planet. From bubbling gasses to cliffs and canyons, readers will be enthralled by these aspects of our neighboring planet. The book starts out with a simple "Mars Is…" and then begins listing all of the different landforms and movements happening on Mars's surface, accompanied by detailed and colorful close-up photography of the mentioned geological features. The large text of the book carries on a simple narrative of the wonders of Mars, while each spread also includes a brief descriptive paragraph detailing the scientific phenomena behind that particular geological feature. The simple narrative and the pictures alone could work well for a younger elementary reader, while older readers could benefit from the additional information. VERDICT Because of the dual nature of the text that is understandable by various young readers and the literally out of this world photography, this makes a great addition to elementary school space nonfiction collections.--Molly Dettmann, Norman North H.S., OK
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Review by Horn Book Review
Using photos sent to earth by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera that has been orbiting Mars since 2006, Slade introduces readers to some of the extraordinary features of our closest planet. Each double-page spread includes a stunning, beautifully reproduced photograph with a phrase or word in large type: "Mars is shifting // and changing, // heaving..." and a paragraph of explanation in smaller type. The photographs are striking, though it's hard to discern scale. The accompanying text helps readers understand what they're looking at, but the book is most successful at creating a sense of curiosity and wonder. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A photo gallery of Martian landforms and surface features, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's powerful HiRISE camera. A failure in both concept and execution, this set of big, square close-ups not only renders HiRISE's extraordinarily high-resolution shots as, too often, murky blurs, but pairs them to passages of commentary that don't consistently mention essentials like scale and location--or even seem to be describing what's on display. Slade offers just a small wedge of what she vaguely dubs a "colossal crater," for instance, while leaving viewers to search for invisible "channels in the ice" carved among unexplained hillocks at the Martian south pole and wondering what the dark, brushlike formations that seem to be sticking up from "northern sandy dunes" even are. She just swoons over the planet's "gorgeous rocky layers" and "lovely linear ridges" while building up to a rhapsodic finale ("completely breathtaking!… / Mars is more amazing than anyone ever imagined!") in immense type. Capped by a closing timeline that asks readers to believe that Mars was "first discovered" in the 1600s, this outing offers neither the information nor the inspiration of similar photo essays like Seymour Simon's Mars (1987) and Elizabeth Rusch's Mighty Mars Rovers (2012). Never leaves the launchpad. (Informational picture book. 7-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
