Martian Rock

Review: "Martian Rock" is a clever science fiction story that takes four martian friends on a trip to explore space. On their way they see the 9 planets and even find a new life form on their last visit! This book does a really good job of also introducing young readers to characteristics of the solar system.

Genre: Science Fiction

Genre Critique: This story is clearly science fiction because of the fact that that main characters are martians from another planet. The author does a good job however, of taking the genre and still instilling factual information about the planets. It would border on being informational, but there is a clear depiction of science fiction life forms.

Setting Critique: The setting of this story is very show more interesting because while the characters are extremely fictional, the setting is not! The reader gets a clear glimpse onto each planet in the solar system and sees characteristics exhibited from each. I think that the author did a very good job of portraying the setting on a level that is informational for the young audience that this book might attract. show less

This is a nice fantasy picture book that talks about a space adventure of four martians. It has a nice plot that four martians want to find another star and also has life, which can attracts children very well. But I think the words in this picture book are little bit difficult for young children that may need parents’ or teachers’ help.

Summary: A group of martians from mars prepare to take off on a great adventure to try to answer the age-old question: "is there life on other planets?" The martians fly around to each of the planets in their solar system, encountering all kinds of dangers on their quest and repeatedly failing to find life. The martians land on their last planet, Earth, and see nothing but white snow. Just as they are about to give up and go home, they make a surprising discovery. The martians become surrounded by dozens of penguins, and soon realize that they are friendly creatures that they can play with. The martians phone home to show off their discovery. Mission accomplished, they say goodbye to the penguins and fly back home.

Genre Critique: This show more is a good example of science fiction, because it deals with things that could be real through scientific advances, but are not possible at this point in history. These include the idea of driving space ships and space travel. The book also focuses on martians from another planet that have human characteristics. The author does a good job at taking the science fiction elements and instilling factual information about each planet in the story.

Style Critique: The author presents multiple elements of style in her word choice and sentence construction of this book. The story is engaging and reads like poetry. The use of rhyme is consistent all throughout the story. The use of rhyme was effective, because it helped the text read smoothly, connecting one thought to another. In addition, the author uses personification to describe things such as the roaring engine and howling winds. The use of personification was effective, because it allowed me to clearly picture the scene and add intensity to what was happening.

Media: watercolor and pencil show less

Three astronauts and a mascot go from their home planet, in hopes to find some friends from other galaxies on their journey. There are many dangers that the astronauts hit and they are close to quitting before something amazing happens.

The illustrations for this book were done in both watercolor and pencil. This book is about a group of aliens who are traveling through space because they see the planet Mars and are interested in seeing what the rest of the planets are like. They first travel out to Pluto and then make their way all the way back to the sun, describing what each planet is like (how many rings it has, what substance it is made out of, and what color it is). This book would be categorized as science fiction because it is a fictional story, but it gives the readers information about science at the same time. This book could be for students kindergarten-fifth grade.

This picture book talks about the story of four brave astronauts finding lives in other planets. They went to 7 planets and eventually found lives in the last one--the earth. They made friends with the lives in the earth, and got a rock called Martian Rock as a souvenir then back to their planet. The nice illustrations in this book show the traits of each planet which is a good beginning for children to know and to develop their interest in exploring the universe. In addition, the texts are with rhyme, such as "right, sight", "pole, snow, go". This book can be a wonderful material for elementary students as a beginning book to know about the planet we live and the universe out planet locating in.

An upbeat, rhymthic book about martians finding life on other planets. As they were about to give up, the martians found life exists on orb three- Earth.