Hello, I'm Richard Nimz, prospector of the written word and literary explorer extraordinaire. Alright, now I've got a picture book with content that I'm personally rather fond of, being about space and all. It hasn't won any awards, or even gotten reviewed in any big papers, so I think that it's perfect for this blog. It's called Space Station Mars, and it was written by Daniel San Souci.
Citation: San Souci, Daniel (2005). Space Station Mars. Berkeley, California: Tricycle Press.
Summary: One day, a bunch of kids are sitting out in the backyard when a meteor streaks across the sky. Kids being kids, they decide to find it. They do, but they have no idea what it is or if it's radioactive or not. That's when Neil comes in. A nerd complete with chemistry set and crystal radio, he organizes the gang into a laboratory (of sorts) dedicated to finding out about the aliens who might be responsible for this rock. What he discovers, though, could mean the difference between life or death for an entire planet. (Before you get the wrong idea, there are no real aliens, although the last page makes it kind of unclear)
Impressions: I thought it was alright. I'll admit, the story is kind of ridiculous, but I was willing to go along with it (kids will be kids, after all). The artwork is great, and the scene where Neil presents two 'aliens' with the rock near their 'spaceship' really is phenomenal (as an added bonus, that 'spaceship' really exists). While science is, understandably, thrown under the bus at several points, there are still enough instances of good science that it could be used as a jumping off point to talk about science. There's even a message in code at the end that I would love to use as a puzzle to teach kids about cryptography. In closing, it's like Gina Clifford said: "Young children will enjoy this book read aloud and established readers will find this book easy to read. The illustrations are lively and fun, capturing a youngster's imagination."
Sources:
Clifford, Gina (5 May, 2008). Family Reads: Space Station Mars. Family Reads. Retrieved from http://www.familyreads.com/2008/05/space-station-m.html
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