Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Answering the questions on many kids' minds when imagining life in space, this book will tell you what would happen, and what you would do, if you were the first kid on Mars. Using the second person, O'Brien then takes readers through every step of the four-month trip from Earth to Mars: aboard space elevators, orbital stations, transport rockets, landing modules, and more. These descriptions help give a speculatively scientific feel to the proceedings, full of technology that isn't that far off. Indeed, by involving the reader directly in the story, O'Brien helps ensure that they won't even realize they're learning all sorts of wonderful things about gravity, distance, geology, and life along the way. As strong as the narrative can be, though, it's really the visuals that will drop the most jaws. The nearly photorealistic scenes of space travel and planetary exploration are a rare example of warm and immediate digital rendering, although admittedly the faces can look a little creepy here and there. But it's easy to look past that and get lost imagining oneself exploring the pristinely serene scenery of the Red Planet. Until such a thing is possible, this is as close as a child will get and even in this guise, it's a pretty neat experience.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
O'Brien (Captain Raptor and the Moon Mystery) takes an inventive leap into the future, bringing readers on a journey to Mars. Made captivatingly real by stunning, photographlike digital art, the adventure begins as a child boards an "elevator car" that ascends along cables to reach an elaborate space station. A "Nuclear Thermal Rocket" docked there then embarks on a four-month journey to a space station orbiting Mars, from which a "lander" ship delivers the crew and young passenger to the planet's surface. The thrilled kid finally gets to explore the planet ("Gravity on Mars is less than half as strong as on Earth, so you take big, bouncing steps"), making his way to a habitat that houses scientists. O'Brien generates dramatic graphic particulars: sophisticated robotic machines perform various tasks and a sleek "MarsPlane" flies over the breathtaking Valles Marineris canyon. Though the second-person narrative makes the action feel immediate, when coupled with O'Brien's depiction of the protagonist as a Caucasian boy, it may leave non-white, non-male readers unable to connect. Still, this intriguing vision of space exploration should set imaginations soaring. Ages 5-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-With pictures and details that are so realistic it takes an effort to remember that it can't happen (yet), the author takes readers up the Space Elevator, on board a spaceship, and off to Mars for six months of sightseeing and colony living. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The rocket that will take you to Mars is docked at the space station." With its second-person text, this book takes readers to a colonized Mars and back, relating the preparations, journey, and habitat of the destination. O'Brien's realistic depiction of this futuristic fantasy will leave readers feeling that a six-month stay on our neighboring planet is a not-too-distant possibility. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Pairing a present-tense text to photorealistic digital paintings, O'Brien invites readers to take an entirely credible journey to Mars. The second-person trip begins with a young, white, apparently male tourist's near-future ride up the space elevator to a space station, followed by a rocket flight to the Mars orbital base and then a quick descent to the small colony complex on the surface. After observing scientists at work, outings in a wheeled vehicle and the MarsPlane not only take "you" past the old Sojourner rover but also provide glimpses of Olympus Mons and the immense Valles Marineris. Six months later, it's back to Earth: "You have gone where no kid has gone before." The gear and human figures look as real as the settings, and though the author's repeated claim that Mars is the closest planet is a debatable one, so strong is the sense of verisimilitude that children may be surprised to learn that they can't (yet!) make the trip themselves. (Mars facts) (Speculative nonfiction. 6-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
