Mars (Watts Library) [Paperback]

Elaine Landau (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Watts Library

Uses photographs and other recent findings to describe the atmosphere and geographic features of Mars.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-Correcting old errors and adding new information, Landau updates her 1991 introductions to the next two planets beyond Earth. There have been plenty of developments in the meantime including the Ulysses and Galileo probes that have provided close-up views of Jupiter and its moons, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's spectacular crash into that planet, and Mars Pathfinder's considerably softer landing in 1997 to launch little Sojourner. Along with a generous selection of paintings and enhanced-color photos, readers will get a summary of our developing knowledge of each planet, plus a glimpse of plans for future exploratory missions. Both accounts close with lists of books, Web sites, and places to visit. Despite the revisions, these titles still lag well behind events-particularly Mars, which goes into generalities after Pathfinder and mentions the Mars Polar Lander not at all-and so are recommended for supplementary purchase, after such titles as Seymour Simon's Destination: Jupiter (Morrow, 1998) and Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy's The Mystery of Mars (Crown, 1999).
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

About the Author

Elaine Landau is the author of several nonfiction books for children.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 63 pages
• Publisher: Franklin Watts (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531164284
• ISBN-13: 978-0531164280
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,353,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a children's book author and writing coach who loves both children and books. I've never been much of a fiction fan, I've spent my time both reading and writing nonfiction. I live in tropical Miami with my husband and son who are nonfiction lovers as well.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a fascinating book any budding astronomer will love!, May 31, 2009

By 

D. Fowler "Dragonfly77" (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mars (True Books: Space) (Paperback)

Mars, the Red Planet is probably the planet that holds the most fascination for people. So many wild stories have been written about it and little men from Mars have crept into a lot of science fiction tales. Some things are true, while others are just figments of our imagination. In this book there are two sentences in the front of the book. Only one is true and you'll have to read the book to find out which is which. The surface of Mars is somewhat similar to that of Earth's, but there are some major differences. For example, the "average surface temperature on Mars is -81 F!" Another difference is that the gravity on Mars is much weaker.

This planet is the fourth from the sun, the seventh largest in our solar system and is 4,222 miles in diameter. Time wise its day is approximately 43 minutes longer than Earth's and their year is 687 days, "almost twice as long as a year on Earth." Meteorites have apparently hit Mars many times and it is peppered with craters, the largest of which "could hold the whole state of Texas!" Texas has storms, but Mars has giants sand storms that would be some difficult to survive in! The atmosphere, made up mostly carbon dioxide, would make this planet inhabitable for human beings. You will also learn about Deimos and Phobos, Mars's odd shaped moons and the many missions we have sent and are planning to send to the planet.

This book is fascinating and any space fanatic or budding astronomer will love it. The pages are filled with full color photographs, informative sidebars, interesting fun facts scattered throughout its pages, a time line, a page of statistics, important words, an index and additional recommended book and web sites. On the 1976 Viking 1 space mission a photograph of a rock formation "looked like a human face." This amazing photograph is in this book!