Max Goes to Mars

Max Goes to Mars 

Written by: Jeffrey Bennett
Illustrated by: Alan Okamoto

Copyright: 2006
Genre: science fiction
Theme: space exploration
Appropriate for Ages: 7-9 years

Summary:
Tori and her dog Max stayed really busy. One day Tori got a call from commander Grant and he said he wanted Max to go on their first trip to Mars. Tori taught Max as much as she could about the planet. Max was trained to look for signs of life when they got to Mars. He helped humanity explore Mars and returned back home to Tori after two long years.



Illustrations:
The illustrations are very bright and take up the whole page. He uses a lot of oranges and browns when they are on Mars and a lot of bright blues and greens when they are on planet Earth.

My thoughts:
It is a very fun story about space exploration. It is also instructive at the same time because it does tell you facts about Mars and space. I love how they use the dog in the story to help space exploration. Children would love this book because you don't usually hear about a dog going into space and that would be interesting to them.

Awards:
Learning Magazine Teachers Choice Award, 2010
Young voices foundation gold award, children's picture book, 2009
creative child magazine preferred choice award, educational book 2009
national science teachers association recommendations list

Links:
more about the author
Classroom activities about Mars

Review:
It is a great book to use to educate kids about space because of the sidebars on each page. It has true information and facts about space and tells you why or why not what happens in the story is real. It also inspires children to think about how they can help to make the world a better place and maybe even space travel themselves.