Grade 5-7–This drab but systematic survey offers students an overview of our study of the Red Planet, from ancient observations of its seemingly irregular path through the sky to NASA’s April 2004 decision to extend the missions of rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Despite rare and clumsy efforts to rev it up («After screaming through space at sixteen thousand miles per hour…»), the prose is as dry as the Martian surface, and several of the accompanying, faded-looking black-and-white photos or diagrams add neither information nor insight. Still, determined readers will find plenty of current information, plus a strongly made case for sending humans to Mars, and, to close, particularly thorough and useful resource lists. While Seymour Simon’s Destination: Mars (HarperCollins, 2000) or Stuart Murray and Edward S. Barnard’s Mars (DK, 2004) have far superior browser appeal, Parks’s book is a suitable choice for deeper subject collections.
