A Trip to Mars - Hardcover

In this attractive but insignificant story, a little girl dons her space suit (which looks remarkably like a blanket sleeper) and begins to pack for a trip to Mars: space hat, space shoes, space gloves, space mop (for the dust), flashlight, vegetables, space cookies, teddy bear. After she says goodbye to her sleeping parents, she blasts off in a rocket ship. On four pages of lined yellow paper, the girl prints some facts about Mars. Other informational tidbits are scattered throughout the brief text. The cheerful illustrations, executed in acrylic, oil pastel, and colored pencil, are surrounded by wide white borders on pages showing the child at home; borderless two-page spreads (in oranges, yellows, pinks, and dark blue) show her and her cat on Mars. Although the "facts" section states that "a human being couldn't breathe on Mars without a space helmet and an oxygen tank," the girl frolics on the planet wearing a motorcycle-style helmet sans oxygen tank. (Her cat wears no protective clothing at all.) Very young space lovers will be left unsatisfied by the book's cutesy text, while the limited amount of factual material (seemingly aimed at six to eight year olds) can be found in more depth in any work of nonfiction about the planets. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.