Getting closer looks at Mars has long been both an alluring goal of the U.S. space program and one of its most spectacular technological achievements. Here Scott recaps the progress thus far, from the invention of the telescope to the Phoenix Mars mission that, she notes, made a successful landing just as her report was going to press. Along with a fine array of large, composite space images, surface-level photographs and digital paintings that include pictures of all the probes currently orbiting the Red Planet, she enhances her summary of each mission’s achievements and findings with a diagram that identifies every scientific instrument aboard the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The text tantalizes readers with closing profiles of upcoming Mars ventures and a quick glimpse of current efforts to reproduce Martian living conditions on this planet. Readers will come away with both a coherent historical overview and a heady sense that we are on the verge of some epoch-making discoveries. (resource list) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-618-76695-6
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
The Pumpkin Book (32 pp.; $16.95; Sept. 15; 0-8234-1465-5): From seed to vine and blossom to table, Gibbons traces the growth cycle of everyone’s favorite autumn symbol—the pumpkin. Meticulous drawings detail the transformation of tiny seeds to the colorful gourds that appear at roadside stands and stores in the fall. Directions for planting a pumpkin patch, carving a jack-o’-lantern, and drying the seeds give young gardeners the instructions they need to grow and enjoy their own golden globes. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1465-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
In this abridged and illustrated version of his Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), Bryson invites a younger crowd of seekers on a tour of time, space and science—from the Big Bang and the birth of the solar system to the growth and study of life on Earth. The single-topic spreads are adorned with cartoon portraits of scientists, explorers and (frequently) the author himself, which go with small nature photos and the occasional chart or cutaway view. Though occasionally subject to sweeping and dubious statements—“There’s no chance we could ever make a journey through the solar system”—Bryson makes a genial guide (“for you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to come together in a complicated and obliging manner to create you”), and readers with even a flicker of curiosity in their souls about Big Ideas will come away sharing his wonder at living in such a “fickle and eventful universe.” (index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73810-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
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