Life on Mars - Hardcover

Getz, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080503708X ISBN 13: 9780805037081

Publisher: Redfeather Book from Henry Holt, 1997

Synopsis

"Get ready to sy good-bye," your commander says. Within minutes, he will fire the rockets and your ship will leap out of its Earth orbit. You are going to Mars.

You are on a special mission to a place no human has ever been. You will travel a great distance: more than 35 million miles from Earth. You will eat freeze-dried food and sleep floating above your bed. It could be dangerous, but you and your crew know your duties and are prepared for any situation. You are a new kind of pioneer and there is much work to be done. You are on your way to the planet Mars.

Why are you going? How long will it take? What will you find once you get there? In this fascinating, up-to-the-minute look at space travel, David Getz draws on interviews with scientists and members of NASA, describing what the arduous journey to Mars would be like and the challenges astrounauts might face once they arrived on the planet. The result is a thrilling story with an ending that is still unfolding.

About this title

About the Author

David Getz is the award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Thin Air and Almost Famous, and the nonfiction books Frozen Man and Frozen Girl. When not writing, Mr. Getz works as an elementary-school principal in New York City.

Peter McCarty is the Caldecott Honor-winning author and illustrator of Hondo and Fabian. He also teamed up with David Getz on Frozen Man, Frozen Girl, and Purple Death. Mr. McCarty lives with his wife and two children in Upstate New York.

Reviews

Getz (Floating Home, p. 380, etc.) offers eager space pioneers a primer on interplanetary travel and Martian colonization. In a penetrating second-person, you-are-there narration, he parades an amusing array of falsehoods and hysteria perpetrated in the name of Earth's neighbor, such as astronomer Percival Lowell's assumption in 1894 that the lines he saw on Mars's surface were canals, or the 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds. But it is Getz's deft juggling of scientific facts that is truly engaging. Although the Martian soil is nearly antiseptic and incapable of supporting even the tiniest amino acids, the planet will, at the hands of scientists, get an environmental face lift via terraforming. During the journey to Mars, only vigorous exercise will offset the weakening of muscles and subsequent loss of bone strength in zero gravity; the crew will sleep ``standing up,'' and use a toilet with a seat belt. The numerous black-and-white satellite photos and computer- generated landscapes bring the alien terrain up close and personal; McCarty's charcoal drawings lend a sense of excitement to this lighthearted interstellar adventure. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3^-5. Although the title Life on Mars covers one aspect of the book (including, in an appended "Update," the 1996 meteorite fossil find), the account begins with an imaginary space flight from Earth to Mars. Getz addresses the reader directly ("You are in your last orbit . . ."), adding immediacy to the book. The fictional framework continues throughout the text. The upside is that the narrative aspect allows the author to include plenty of information about space travel in a readable manner. The downside is that readers may find it hard to tell where fiction leaves off and fact begins. Getz shows how our knowledge of Mars has changed over time, relates the findings of the Viking landers, considers what scientists think is necessary for life, and discusses how Mars might be terraformed into a planet hospitable for human life. With the Redfeather series' small format, many black-and-white photographs and drawings, and relatively large type, this book would suit students moving into chapter books. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Redfeather Book from Henry Holt
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080503708X
• ISBN 13: 9780805037081
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: McCarty Peter
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80