Mars: Level 4

National Geographic Readers: Level 3

by Elizabeth Carney, National Geographic Kids

National Geographic Primary Readers is a high-interest series of beginning reading books that have been developed in consultation with education experts. The books pair magnificent National Geographic photographs with lively text by skilled children’s book authors across four reading levels. Discover the fascinating world of Mars in this colourful book packed with amazing imagery. In this inviting and entertaining format, kids will learn about the newest information on Mars, the Mars Rover, and our ongoing exploration of the Red Planet. This level 4 reader is written in an easy-to-grasp style to encourage the scientists and explorers of tomorrow! Level 4: Independent reader
Perfect for kids who are reading on their own with ease and are ready for more challenging vocabulary with varied sentence structures. They are ideal for readers of White and Lime books.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Space

48 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2014

About the author

Elizabeth Carney is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She specializes in children's nonfiction and science, math, and STEM-related subjects.

Elizabeth received the 2005 AAAS Science Journalism Award for science reporting for children. Her titles Face to Face With Cheetahs, Face to Face With Gorillas, and Great Migrations: Whales, Wildebeests, Butterflies, Elephants, and Other Amazing Animals on the Move appeared on the National Science Teachers Association's Outstanding Science Trade Book list for 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the written text, while the featured facts and details of Elizabeth Carney's Mars are most definitely interesting and even presented in an engaging enough manner (and seemingly up-to-date), I can personally simply NOT ignore that just like with ALL of the National Geographic Readers I have perused to date, Mars also and once again includes no citations, no source acknowledgements, no bibliographical information whatsoever (which I personally do not only consider as potentially academically dishonest and suspect at best, it also renders it patently impossible to use Mars for further reading and/or supplemental research, not to mention that it also makes it considerably more difficult to easily and accurately verify Elizabeth Carney's facts and assertions). Combined with the constant and lamely annoying riddles (which also appear to be part and parcel to ALL National Geographic Readers and are not only tediously silly but woefully repetitive), I really have not found Mars all that engaging and enjoyable a reading experience and the only reason I am in fact and indeed still ranking it with three stars instead of two is simply that compared to some of the other National Geographic Reader offerings I have read over the past few days, Mars has definitely been considerably more engagingly penned and with less annoying organiational issues, and therefore, albeit rather grudgingly, I do rank Mars with a low three stars. However, I for one do massively and totally fail to understand and accept why an internationally known science and technology based company such as National Geographic would even consider presenting non fiction tomes on astronomy, on biology, on geology and the like (even if they are geared to children) without at least basic suggestions for further reading and research (for me, this is both infuriating and almost inconceivable, and really does make the National Geographic Readers rather useless and annoyingly frustrating, or at least that has been the case to and for me and will more than likely continue to be the case).

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and accessible, even for a 5 year old. My daughter loves it.

I appreciate how up-to-date this thin volume is compared to several age appropriate books at our local libraries. Another wonderful aspect is the window into the basic research behind Mars missions and thinking about human beings on space missions. The book introduces simple questions like: Can you grow food on another planet? and How does a person's body change in space? But it also opens space for the big dreams, like terraforming a planet.

[Shourya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about how life would be on Mars, and all the things that humans have to do there. Since there is no gravity there, people need special diets and exercises. It also talks about different rovers that have landed on Mars. That is how we know all the information that we do. NASA is planning to put people in space, but they want the astronauts to have lots of training.

I think this book did a good job explaining the topics. I like that this book did not go into too many different topics, but was mostly basic. I also felt that it was good that it had the affects of gravity on the human body. It also talked about how humans might change Mars, which was really helpful. I would recommend this book to people who like space and exploration.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about mars and how much we know about it. In this book it shows and tells you about the different rovers and what there purpose was on mars. Another thing they talked about was their plan for Mars's future which was to build up greenhouse gases through big factories which would build a livable atmosphere where the temperature will only be a few degrees colder than here on Earth. Then over the course of a thousand years the red planet would have entire ecosystems of green.

Over the entire book my favorite thing about this book is that there is a plan for mars from today to 1000 years from now. I think this book is very interesting and the author made it so simple that a 3rd grader could understand it.

[Zoey]

This book is about the planet Mars. It describes what it looks like, rotation, how long the days are, etc... Mars is red and rusty looking. It spins more slowly on its axis than Earth does. On mars a day is 24 hours and 37 minutes and a year onMars is 687 Earth days.

This book is interesting. It describes everything about Mars. This book is very short. If you like to reads about plants this would be a good book to read. Also if you like to know random facts about Mars his would be a god book to read.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The jokes are Kait’s favourite feature. We all learned a lot.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this so much i been wanting too know about mars more in fact i now want to be a sicentest!

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

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