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Mars Is: Stark Slopes, Silvery Snow, and Startling Surprises
Author and former mechanical engineer Suzanne Slade explores the beauty of Mars in this photo-packed space extravaganza.
For young readers eagerly following NASA's Mars Exploration Program and awaiting continued discoveries on the Red Planet.
For centuries, people have been intrigued by Mars, and over time, scientists have made exciting discoveries, such as the planet's Earth-like weather and seasons. But curious earthlings want to know more. Does Mars have deserts? Volcanos? Or signs of life? Could people live there someday?
Scientists decided to take a closer look. They built a powerful camera called the HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and loaded it onto a rocket. The rocket blasted off on August 12, 2005, and seven months later, the camera began orbiting Mars. It sent back astounding, revealing photos showing the world what Mars really is.
Suzanne Slade leads readers through some of these photos taken by the most advanced camera ever sent to another planet. A visual journey for space enthusiasts and STEAM fans that will expand readers' assumptions and understanding of Mars.
For young readers eagerly following NASA's Mars Exploration Program and awaiting continued discoveries on the Red Planet.
For centuries, people have been intrigued by Mars, and over time, scientists have made exciting discoveries, such as the planet's Earth-like weather and seasons. But curious earthlings want to know more. Does Mars have deserts? Volcanos? Or signs of life? Could people live there someday?
Scientists decided to take a closer look. They built a powerful camera called the HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and loaded it onto a rocket. The rocket blasted off on August 12, 2005, and seven months later, the camera began orbiting Mars. It sent back astounding, revealing photos showing the world what Mars really is.
Suzanne Slade leads readers through some of these photos taken by the most advanced camera ever sent to another planet. A visual journey for space enthusiasts and STEAM fans that will expand readers' assumptions and understanding of Mars.
48 pages, Hardcover
Published April 6, 2021
1 person is currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Slade
157 books130 followersSibert honoree author of more than 150 books for chlldren.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 4, 2021
Mars. That’s an easy one. That’s the red planet, right? The one that’s all dusty and reddish, where Matt Damon lived on potatoes. Mars. Ray Bradbury had tons of stories set there. A dry wasteland, like a desert, where a person could slowly go mad. Unlike, say, Neptune or Uranus, Mars is the one planet that a lot of people here on Earth have a pretty strong feeling for. We know that folks would like to colonize it someday. And I’ve personally made it a point of pride to read every middle grade novel I know that’s set there. Mars. It’s incapable of surprising us anymore. Right? Well, it turns out that everything I thought I knew about Mars, right down to what it looks like, was dead smackin’ wrong. I did not know about the snow. I did not know about the bedrock. I didn’t know about what the sun does to Mars in its spring or just the sheer number of different textures its surface is capable of. And, naturally, the reason that I didn’t know any of this is because it wasn’t until a powerful camera started sending back highly detailed photographs, that anyone knew what Mars actually resembled. Imagine you’re one of the scientists in charge and you start sifting through images of deserts, volcanoes, yardangs (say what?), landslides, and many with these brilliant enhanced colors provided by the camera itself. That thrill of discovery has now been translated into Mars Is. With deft wordplay, Suzanne Slade explains to kids what you are seeing, why it’s important, and in the process she feeds the imaginations of a whole up and coming crop of scientists in the making.
Leave it to earthlings to always want to know more. It hasn’t been enough for us to stare up into the sky at Mars. We want to see onto its surface. To probe its secrets and find out what lies in store for us there. So in 2005 a powerful camera was sent up into space. Called the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) it began orbiting Mars in 2006. Since that time it has sent 60,000 photos, with new ones coming home all the time. After enhancing the color, the photographs are an amazing array. Canyons that dwarf our own. Dormant volcanoes. Impact craters galore! Suzanne Slade walks young readers through marvel after marvel, explaining the science in an accurate and understandable way. By the end, kids will have a firm grasp on not simply what Mars looks like, but how its surface can offer clues to its mysterious past. Backmatter includes information on the camera’s trip to the stars, further info on the camera, and some facts about Mars itself.
I love having a six-year-old in my house that I can bounce books off of (not literally, of course – that would be rude). Each morning we have a little time to read something, so I like to have some kind of science book or bio on hand. Mars Is gave us all kinds of fodder for discussion too. I mean, we’re talking about a planet that’s essentially chock full of dry ice. Then I went into a whole explanation about what dry ice even is (along with a remembrance of an ill-fated ice cream shop in my hometown that would serve ice cream desserts with dry ice inside). Turn a page and there’s an image of a gigantic crater caused by an asteroid long ago. That led to a talk about dinosaurs and the possibility of Earth ever encountering an asteroid. Turn a page and we’re looking a large boulders that can move. That leads to us talking about tectonic plates shifting. A truly good informational book for kids allows for this kind of conversation. It’s a piss poor book that doesn’t make you split off onto tangents and explanations with every page. This is the kind of book that helps kids to create new memories, even as it indulges and informs.
A word about photography. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Photography gets short shrift in the children’s literary world. In the old days this was somewhat understandable. Printing processes simply weren’t up to the task of replicating color photos, so you ended up with a lot of black and white books. That led to some pretty interesting stuff (The Lonely Doll, anyone?) but in general, photography was considered inferior to illustration. That attitude hasn't shifted much. Heck, the closest it’s ever gotten to a Caldecott was when Mo Willems used photographs (which he himself took) as backgrounds in the Knuffle Bunny series. But times change. Technology, and cameras, improved considerably. Printing techniques were upgraded and now we have the ability to recreate sumptuous images on the page. Just in time too. I shudder to think what kind of books we’d be seeing if the HiRISE had existed twenty years ago. And while the book never explains how many images Suzanne Slade had to sift through, surely this title stands as a landmark work of photography in a work for kids.
So what’s your favorite photograph in the book? I mean, you have to have one. It’s a tough choice, though. My first instinct would be to say those blue-gray dunes in the Lyot Crater. Their curves resemble nothing so much as the folds of some kind of alien fabric. They’re cool, but can they really hold a candle to the linear ridges you’d find in a dry valley? Or the mesas, man, the mesas! In “Mars Is” the colors are also a key part of the allure. Reds and blues and grays. Granted, these aren’t entirely accurate. As the backmatter explains, because our human eyes “can’t detect color above 700 nm”, the camera enhanced the photos so that the visible colors are made brighter and more intense. And the textures! I give this book inadequate praise if I do not point out how important the textures are in each image. You just want to reach out and pet them. Some enterprising soul should consider making this book into an interactive board book and stat. It would sell like hotcakes.
One book that this immediately reminded me of is Benjamin Grant and Sandra Markle’s Overview: A New Way of Seeing Earth. Like this title, the shots are entirely from a long distance above. Unlike this book, it’s got a bit of an Earth-only focus (crazy, right?). Ditto The Alphabet from the Sky by Benedikt Grob and Joseph Lee. I think the real advantage here is that while those books are neat, they’re not particularly unexpected. A subdivision that looks like the letter “A” doesn’t carry the same weight as round slabs of carbon dioxide in the form of ice or beautiful alluvial fans. Still, the audience may already be built in. Thanks to its good p.r. department, Mars hotter than ever before with kids. All you need is to do now is a Mars readaloud session with a slightly older crowd to lure them in all the way. Want to instill Mars fever? Then you gotta catch this book.
For ages 6 to 10.
Leave it to earthlings to always want to know more. It hasn’t been enough for us to stare up into the sky at Mars. We want to see onto its surface. To probe its secrets and find out what lies in store for us there. So in 2005 a powerful camera was sent up into space. Called the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) it began orbiting Mars in 2006. Since that time it has sent 60,000 photos, with new ones coming home all the time. After enhancing the color, the photographs are an amazing array. Canyons that dwarf our own. Dormant volcanoes. Impact craters galore! Suzanne Slade walks young readers through marvel after marvel, explaining the science in an accurate and understandable way. By the end, kids will have a firm grasp on not simply what Mars looks like, but how its surface can offer clues to its mysterious past. Backmatter includes information on the camera’s trip to the stars, further info on the camera, and some facts about Mars itself.
I love having a six-year-old in my house that I can bounce books off of (not literally, of course – that would be rude). Each morning we have a little time to read something, so I like to have some kind of science book or bio on hand. Mars Is gave us all kinds of fodder for discussion too. I mean, we’re talking about a planet that’s essentially chock full of dry ice. Then I went into a whole explanation about what dry ice even is (along with a remembrance of an ill-fated ice cream shop in my hometown that would serve ice cream desserts with dry ice inside). Turn a page and there’s an image of a gigantic crater caused by an asteroid long ago. That led to a talk about dinosaurs and the possibility of Earth ever encountering an asteroid. Turn a page and we’re looking a large boulders that can move. That leads to us talking about tectonic plates shifting. A truly good informational book for kids allows for this kind of conversation. It’s a piss poor book that doesn’t make you split off onto tangents and explanations with every page. This is the kind of book that helps kids to create new memories, even as it indulges and informs.
A word about photography. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Photography gets short shrift in the children’s literary world. In the old days this was somewhat understandable. Printing processes simply weren’t up to the task of replicating color photos, so you ended up with a lot of black and white books. That led to some pretty interesting stuff (The Lonely Doll, anyone?) but in general, photography was considered inferior to illustration. That attitude hasn't shifted much. Heck, the closest it’s ever gotten to a Caldecott was when Mo Willems used photographs (which he himself took) as backgrounds in the Knuffle Bunny series. But times change. Technology, and cameras, improved considerably. Printing techniques were upgraded and now we have the ability to recreate sumptuous images on the page. Just in time too. I shudder to think what kind of books we’d be seeing if the HiRISE had existed twenty years ago. And while the book never explains how many images Suzanne Slade had to sift through, surely this title stands as a landmark work of photography in a work for kids.
So what’s your favorite photograph in the book? I mean, you have to have one. It’s a tough choice, though. My first instinct would be to say those blue-gray dunes in the Lyot Crater. Their curves resemble nothing so much as the folds of some kind of alien fabric. They’re cool, but can they really hold a candle to the linear ridges you’d find in a dry valley? Or the mesas, man, the mesas! In “Mars Is” the colors are also a key part of the allure. Reds and blues and grays. Granted, these aren’t entirely accurate. As the backmatter explains, because our human eyes “can’t detect color above 700 nm”, the camera enhanced the photos so that the visible colors are made brighter and more intense. And the textures! I give this book inadequate praise if I do not point out how important the textures are in each image. You just want to reach out and pet them. Some enterprising soul should consider making this book into an interactive board book and stat. It would sell like hotcakes.
One book that this immediately reminded me of is Benjamin Grant and Sandra Markle’s Overview: A New Way of Seeing Earth. Like this title, the shots are entirely from a long distance above. Unlike this book, it’s got a bit of an Earth-only focus (crazy, right?). Ditto The Alphabet from the Sky by Benedikt Grob and Joseph Lee. I think the real advantage here is that while those books are neat, they’re not particularly unexpected. A subdivision that looks like the letter “A” doesn’t carry the same weight as round slabs of carbon dioxide in the form of ice or beautiful alluvial fans. Still, the audience may already be built in. Thanks to its good p.r. department, Mars hotter than ever before with kids. All you need is to do now is a Mars readaloud session with a slightly older crowd to lure them in all the way. Want to instill Mars fever? Then you gotta catch this book.
For ages 6 to 10.
June 26, 2021
Taking photos from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) that began orbiting Mars in 2006, this nonfiction picture book gives an intimate look at the planet. The large text in the book continues the Mars is… from the title while smaller text offers scientific details about what the image is revealing about Mars. While the images are all of the surface of Mars, they are unique and different from one another, each showing elements of wind, rock, dunes and craters that tell an even greater history of what has formed the planet.
Slade harnesses the incredible photographs from the HiRISE project with huge impact. The design of the book uses the images as the background for the entire page, allowing readers to get the most out of every image. The variety of images is remarkable too, from the paleness of the sand dunes to the dark drama of the slopes and craters.
Slade’s text allows readers to really understand what each image is showing about Mars and what it reveals about how the planet’s surface has formed and continues to evolve and change. She uses technical terms and explains them clearly, taking readers through the image and inviting them to look at it even more closely. At the end of the book, the HiRISE project is explained.
A fantastic science book that children will love to explore. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
Slade harnesses the incredible photographs from the HiRISE project with huge impact. The design of the book uses the images as the background for the entire page, allowing readers to get the most out of every image. The variety of images is remarkable too, from the paleness of the sand dunes to the dark drama of the slopes and craters.
Slade’s text allows readers to really understand what each image is showing about Mars and what it reveals about how the planet’s surface has formed and continues to evolve and change. She uses technical terms and explains them clearly, taking readers through the image and inviting them to look at it even more closely. At the end of the book, the HiRISE project is explained.
A fantastic science book that children will love to explore. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
August 26, 2022
Mars is
buried rock,
bubbling gas,
and mighty mesas. (first three two-page spreads with AMAZING PHOTOS!!!!)
Each two-page spread has a descriptive phrase (e.g., bubbling gas) and then a sidebar/caption in a smaller print with a few sentences describing the how the formations in the photo are formed.
FASCINATING STUFF!!!
Highly recommend reading aloud in 1st-3rd or book talking in any grade and leaving on the shelf to be snapped up. The first time I'd read aloud just the large print and allow time for the students to look in awe at the photographs. A second read aloud would include the smaller print. This book lends itself to students asking a lot of questions - about vocabulary like mesa and dry ice, about what they are seeing in the photos (and you may need to make clear up front that these photos are taken high above the surface of Mars), about how Slade's words are revealed in the photograph (which is sometimes easier to answer and sometimes not).
BTW Suzanne Slade is a GO-TO AUTHOR for me. I read everything she writes because she's always that good!
buried rock,
bubbling gas,
and mighty mesas. (first three two-page spreads with AMAZING PHOTOS!!!!)
Each two-page spread has a descriptive phrase (e.g., bubbling gas) and then a sidebar/caption in a smaller print with a few sentences describing the how the formations in the photo are formed.
FASCINATING STUFF!!!
Highly recommend reading aloud in 1st-3rd or book talking in any grade and leaving on the shelf to be snapped up. The first time I'd read aloud just the large print and allow time for the students to look in awe at the photographs. A second read aloud would include the smaller print. This book lends itself to students asking a lot of questions - about vocabulary like mesa and dry ice, about what they are seeing in the photos (and you may need to make clear up front that these photos are taken high above the surface of Mars), about how Slade's words are revealed in the photograph (which is sometimes easier to answer and sometimes not).
BTW Suzanne Slade is a GO-TO AUTHOR for me. I read everything she writes because she's always that good!
July 1, 2021
Mars is rather spectacular as seen by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Photos of snow, carbon dioxide gas bubbling from its polar ice caps, craters with exposed bedrock, box canyons and alluvial fans, and shifting sands and active landscapes wonders are introduced to young readers by Slade first is large simple text for the wow factor, and then with more details to explain what the camera has revealed. Also included is information about the mission, space probe, and camera and a chronology of Mars exploration.
June 17, 2021
This is a title that can be utilized for a variety of ages for a storytime and/or STEM activity. The larger simple text would be good for younger children's read alouds showcasing the high resolution images of the planet. An activity could be to create the features of the planet seen in the book (ex. bubbling gas, ridges, etc.). There is additional smaller text with more information about the photograph, providing more educational context. This book was received from Peachtree Publishing.
July 18, 2021
A fascinating and engaging nonfiction read for kids using photos taken from HiRISE, which NASA launced into space in 2005. The text in this book is just enough to keep children interested and never feels like too much. Lots of questions about Mars are explored, and certainly any space-minded child will fall in love with this book.
***Note: I was given a review copy of this book by Peachtree Publishing. Opinions are my own.
***Note: I was given a review copy of this book by Peachtree Publishing. Opinions are my own.
October 19, 2021
The reality of these incredible photos is nearly incomprehensible, depicting how rare indistinct the surfaces of Mars are, while clarifying that our nearest planetary neighbor has many things in common with our planet, Earth.
The text and layout design are part of the breathtaking power of the language and descriptions overlaid on incredible photos of the surfaces and locations on Mars.
Thoroughly awe-inspiring.
The text and layout design are part of the breathtaking power of the language and descriptions overlaid on incredible photos of the surfaces and locations on Mars.
Thoroughly awe-inspiring.
November 28, 2021
Similar to my issue with "Summertime Sleepers," it's hard to keep any kind of rhythm going with the large-font adjectives, nouns, and verbs when you're trying to read the more detailed information in the paragraphs. I don't think this would work for a readaloud, but the photos are stunning. I pretty much tossed my old planet books because they are so out of date, so this would make a nice addition to the collection.
February 25, 2021
Informative, detailed and readable, this is an up close look at Mars. The text is sparse and is paired with stunning up close images of the red planet's topography. Given the recent landing of another rover on Mars, this is a well timed book sure to engage STEM enthusiasts and outer space fans.
April 21, 2021
Photographs from NASA's HiRISE camera provide a stunning, up close look at Mars topography in nonfiction picture book featuring a descriptive and poetic main narrative complemented with paragraphs offer facts and fascinating statistics.
April 4, 2021
An AMAZING collection of photographs of Mars, showing off all the many, many colors and textures of the planet.
April 22, 2021
Absolutely stunning photographs of the Red Planet.
May 4, 2021
Fascinating to look at and surprisingly informative. Highly recommended for any outer space lovers.
June 9, 2021
Great photographs taken by the orbiting camera is the backdrop for an explanation about our near neighbor the Red Planet.
June 17, 2021
The pictures were neat but my seven year old and I got more out of Cars on Mars.
July 1, 2021
Stunning photographs and information about Mars.
July 11, 2021
What a phenomenal way of showcasing HiRise photographs of Mars. This book is gorgeous, informative (I learned how much I really did not know about Mars) and read aloudable.
July 14, 2021
Intriguing with great photos
Read
July 29, 2021Impressionistic, with gorgeous photos, yet no sense of scale.
August 23, 2021
Informative book about Mars, easily understood by children.
September 20, 2021
Loved the photos in this book! A really good way to get kids intrigued about what Mars looks like!
October 24, 2021
Absolutely wonderful photos! Those alone grab attention.
A few bold-type words act as captions for photos.
Clear, consof each wonderful double spread photo
A few bold-type words act as captions for photos.
Clear, consof each wonderful double spread photo
January 9, 2022
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May 25, 2021
Striking, oversized photos from a Mars rover accompanied by both a basic and then more explanatory description of the landscape pictured. Well-timed to accompany the Rover landing and images.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews