Customer Reviews

Max Goes to Jupiter: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog (Science Adventures with Max the Dog series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An adventure story with engaging pictures and great asides of real science - a great book to share with girls and boys of a wide range of ages. The writers combine professionalism and passion for science with a sense of wonder and enjoyment. And happily, the adventures also represent the authors' vision of a world of diverse peoples working together and living in peace.

Wonderful!! One can read these books over and over and learn something new each time. They are loaded with science and are informative to all levels of budding scientists! I highly recommend them!

As an educator that strives to inspire children with a passion for math and science it is critical to equip myself with tools that enable me to do so. Max goes to Jupiter is one such tool. It has a wonderful blend of storytelling and accurate science. It has plenty of additional space facts to inspire the adults that read the books with their children. I firmly believe that the author has carefully selected science facts to compliment the stories and this enables the reader to learn more about space than just Max's adventures. The book is well written, well-illustrated and a fabulous read! As the proud owner of all three books in the series I can personally reccomend all three books.

My family and I love this Max Series of books. Both of my kids have read these books and shared them with their classes at school. These stories allow kids to immerse themselves in a great adventure story about Max the dog, and learn some things about science in the process. Parents will learn a thing or two themselves.

Another wonderful "Max" story! The boys love the stories and we love the science they absorb at the same time. We have an aspiring astronaut, and these stories feed his imagination and excitement about space travel. These are creative and beautiful stories and highly recommended for any age.

I was discussing the Max books with a ten year old girl. She said "I love, love all the books. They are soooooo good!! My Mom likes them too.I hope there are more soon !! "

Max Goes to Jupiter: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog is much more than a beautifully illustrated children's picturebook - it's crammed cover to cover with amazing scientific facts about the planet Jupiter, from its role in human history to the volcanic activity on its moon Io to the evidence of a subsurface ocean on its moon Europa. A playful science fiction story about friendly dog's travels to Jupiter in a spacesuit frames this information-packed book, sure to stimulate young people's interest in science and astronomy. Highly recommended.

My son brought this book home from the school library. His school rated the book at 5th grade level. He read it on his own and understood most of the material. His favorite being the space elevator, how Galileo tracked the 4 biggest moon, the explanation on why the same side of the large moons always face the planets, and underwater volcanoes or black smokers (which he already knew). Parts of this book are interesting. However, 3 stars were deducted for the following reasons:

1. The dog Max, portrayed as playful to, perhaps, entice the children to read this book, in my opinion, does not belong in space at all. First Max's ball went into a probe, then Max almost fell into a lava river in Io and Max ran off chasing his ball in Europa. Max's behavior could seriously endanger a mission.

2. The crew landed on Europa and then proceeded to measure the thickness of the surface ice to determine a drilling spot. When they went looking for Max, they found the "thinnest patch of ice anywhere around" a kilometer away from their starting site. Hmm. Again, the authors did not treat space missions seriously to have the crew plan ahead for a good drill site.

3. Some subliminal messages, such as: "The authors of this book believe that wars, crimes, hatred, and other bad things are caused by people who act as though they still think the universe should revolve around them. Perhaps some day....." "So if you ever get sad about the many problems that we face in this world, such as war, hatred, poverty, or global warming, try instead to focus on the great possibilities that await us if we can work together to solve these problems." "For example, the "one laptop per child" project hopes to provide laptops to all children in even the poorest countries." do not belong in this book. Is this copying 2001 and 2010? While the intentions might be good, children need not be reminded of the burdens of life and should just be able to enjoy a book about space. My youngest was not shown this book at all because we didn't want him to start asking about wars, crimes, hatred and other bad things.

While some parts are interesting, this is not a highly recommended book. Definitely not recommended for children below 8 years old.