Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker

Laura in the Youth Services Department at Thomas Ford Memorial Library grew up in Maryland. When I mentioned that I took a trip to St. Mary's County in Maryland to do some family history research, she suggested that I read Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker. A day or two later in the lunch room, Uma, head of the Youth Services Department, saw that I was reading a Sally M. Walker book. She said that Walker is a well-known author of nonfiction for youth and that our library usually buys her books. A lot of hands touched the book before it landed in my hands, for which I am grateful.

Reading Written in Bone is much like watching an episode of Nova on our local PBS station. Walker shows in pictures and explains through text the work and findings of forensic archaeologists uncovering burial sites in two of our country's original English colonies. Her reporting is on the spot down in the dirt. You can almost feel the Chesapeake heat and humidity as the archaeologists brush the soil from the bones of individuals who died in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Better yet, you get to witness how they examine evidence to learn how the early settlers lived and died.

Looking at our library's catalog of books, I see that Walker has written books at various grade levels. I am attracted to two titles similar to Written Bone. Frozen Secrets recounts Antarctic exploration, and Secrets of a Civil War Submarine uncovers another a bit of American history. I am glad to be a big kid set loose in the children's book collection.

Walker, Sally M. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Carolrhoda Books, 2009. 144p. ISBN 9780822571353.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox and illustrated by Brian Floca

Floating in the Avon River through the center of beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand is not typical elephant seal behavior. Elephant seals usually prefer beaches by the ocean farther from humans. There are exceptions. While traveling in New Zealand years ago, author Lynne Cox heard an unusual story about a lone female seal who made Christchurch's lazy river her home and won the love of its citizens by her refusal live anywhere else. With illustrations by Brian Floca, Cox now tells the story in her children's picture book Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas.

The people of Christchurch named the seal Elizabeth because they thought her regal in demeanor, like their queen. Not everyone, however, agreed that the Avon River was a good place for an elephant seal, especially a seal who would climb out and take naps in a busy street. For the safety of all, well-meaning officials resolved to remove her from the city, but Elizabeth refused to relocate.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas is a charming story that is even more touching to those who know of the city's recent earthquakes. Floca's watercolor illustrations depict a happy time, including in the background buildings that have since been destroyed. The book has a happy ending, and I wish the same for the city.

Cox, Lynne. Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas. Schwartz and Wade Books, 2014. ISBN 9780375958885.

Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cats by Sy Montgomery and photographs by Nic Bishop

I can not decide whether I like cheetahs or snow leopards best. Luckily for me, Sy Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop have written books about both. Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cats is the fourth of their books that I have read. The other two featured tree kangaroos and tapirs.

There are certain factors that keep bringing me back to their books:

1. Bonnie brings them home from her library.
2. They are filled with big beautiful photos.
3. Montgomery and Bishop travel to great locations to learn about their animal subjects.
4. They profile a dedicated naturalist in the field.
5. They add important factual tables and reading lists to their conservation conscious books.

In Chasing Cheetahs, the duo travel to Namibia, which has the highest concentration of the world's endanger cheetah population. There they meet with Laurie Marker and her team at the Cheetah Conservation Fund's center, where the abandoned infant and injured cheetahs are studied and harbored until they can be released into the wild. Montgomery and Bishop accompany the scientists on their daily rounds.

I am hooked on these books and hope for more. I see I missed their book on kakapo parrots of New Zealand. Time to place a reserve at the library.

Montgomery, Sy. Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cats. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. 69p. ISBN 9780547815497.

The Giver by Lois Lowry and Messenger by Lois Lowry

On the recommendation of my eleven-year-old daughter Laura, years ago, I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. I remember liking it very much, but I had forgotten much about it until this week. I wanted an audiobook and was striking out in my search for a downloadable nonfiction title from our consortium that I hadn't already read that I wanted to read (we've got far too many books about war!). Just looking at what was recently returned to see if anything would interest me (maybe a classic mystery?), I noticed Messenger by Lois Lowry, book 3 in the series. Not sure whether it made sense to skip book 2, I went ahead and borrowed and downloaded Messenger.

To complicate matters, I then borrowed print copies of The Giver and the second book in the series, Gathering Blue. I thought I might delay listening to the audiobook to read the print books. I really wanted an audiobook, however, when it came time to work in the garden a few days later, and I went ahead and started Messenger. Then in bed the same night, I started The Giver.

Reading two books in a series at the same time, I thought that I might mix details from the stories, but I should not have worried. The settings, characters, and plots are so clear and different that I had no problem. I soon recognized one common character, and it was interesting observing him at two points in his life. Maybe that makes me the Watcher. Naming is important in both books.

Neither utopia-gone-wrong story took me long to finish. The Giver was as good as I remembered, and Messenger its equal. Now I need to fill the gap.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, 1993. 180p. ISBN 0395645662.

Lowry, Lois. Messenger. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. 169p. ISBN 0681404414.

God Got a Dog by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Marla Fraze

BBWB. Bonnie brings wonderful books. I could label many of my reviews with this code.

After reading God Got a Dog written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Marla Fraze, I could write a sermon, but this is a book review.

If I wrote a sermon, I would say how we would be more mindful and respectful toward other people if we realized who they really were. I would go on to say that we probably would restrain ourselves from hurting others, and if we did harm, we would be sorrowful and make amends.

But this is a book review, and God Got a Dog is a good book. I want to tell you about it without telling too much. You should discover its contents yourself.

God Got a Dog is a book filled with one-page story poems aimed at children that should also be made available to open-minded adults. With every poem is a delightful illustration clarifying its story's character and mood.

My favorite poems in the book:

"God woke up"
"God went to the doctor"
"God wrote a book"
"God got cable"
"God went to India"

Actually, I like them all. God Got a Dog is charming, sweet, and profound. Now I need to get God Went to Beauty School from which these poems were selected.

Rylant, Cynthia. God Got a Dog. Beach Lane Books, 2013. 9781442465183.

The Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato

On April 13, 1945, when American soldiers found a German train filled with dirty and starving Jewish prisoners, one of the Americans said that he had refused to believe the stories that he had heard about Nazi-run death camps. Suddenly he knew it was all true. Rona Arato tells a survivor's story about the Holocaust in the children's book The Last Train: A Holocaust Story.

Brothers Paul and Oscar Auslander, Jewish boys from Karcag, Hungary were on that train with their mother, aunt, and cousins. For nearly a year, they had been moved by trains to various camps, sometimes forced to work on a farm, always guarded by gun-toting soldiers with vicious dogs. Several times the brothers thought they were about to be killed. Through a crack in the side of the boxcar, on that day in April 1945, Paul had seen several German soldiers setting up guns aimed at the train when an American tank appeared. The German soldiers ran away. The Americans then opened the boxcars and set the prisoners free.

The Last Train is a story told from the boys perspective. It starts where you would expect, just before the family is forced from its home by the Nazis, and what I really like is that it goes way past the point at which some authors would have stopped, the day of rescue. Arato tells how hard it was for the family to reunite and get back to Hungary and how Cold War Hungary was nearly as bad as during World War II. Then she tells even more.

The author got the story because she is now Paul's wife, though it took him nearly 40 years to tell her. What is amazing is how finally revealing the story to her and his children led to his meeting the soldiers who set him free.

The Last Train introduces the story of the Holocaust to elementary grade students through a voice much like their own, one that describes the horror of war but remains hopeful that troubles will end. Parents will enjoy this well-told story, too.

Arato, Rona. The Last Train: a Holocaust Story. Owl Kids Books, 2013. 142p. ISBN 9781926973623.

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard by Annette LeBlanc Cate

The American Library Association announced its children's book awards this week, including the highly-entertaining Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard by Annette LeBlanc Cate. This illustrated introduction to bird watching was named an honor book in the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Awards. Knowing I enjoy bird watching, Heather Booth handed me a copy of the book. It was instant love. After work I brought the book home and started reading right away.

Of course, I am a bit older than the target audience, but I must propose that Look Up! would be a great beginning bird book for any age reader. Anyone over nine years old can benefit from a look at this book. The author/illustrator introduces almost every important topic of interest to birders, including how to distinguish field marks, how to read range maps, how to observe behaviors, ethical bird watching, and scientific classification. She even advocates for scavengers, birds that some people dislike. She accomplishes this in 52 illustrated pages.

Like naturalist/journalist Pete Dunne, Cate urges birdwatchers to learn to sketch birds in the wild. The discipline makes the bird watcher note the field marks. Maybe I should take this advice.

Now that Look Up! has been honored by the ALA, look for it in more libraries.

Cate, Annette LeBlanc. Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard. Candlewick Press, 2013. ISBN 9780763645618.

Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

My daughter Laura introduced me to Dear America books when she was in elementary school. Together we read several of these fictional diaries about girls living in pivotal periods of American history. I particularly liked stories that could have been those of my own ancestors. Looking at the display shelves in our youth services department, I recently found a new title, Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

I was attracted by two cover elements. First, a girl is shown in front of a burning city. Second, the setting is identified "Chicago, Illinois, 1871." While I did not actually have any ancestors in the Chicago area in the 1870s, I have moved into the area and have read about the historic fire that burned much of the city in 1871.

Once I actually began reading, I discovered numerous interesting story elements. Pringle Rose is the orphaned daughter of an industrialist who fought the coal mining union in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Her mother, before her death in an accident, cared for her Down's syndrome son during a time when sending such children to asylums was the norm. Pringle attended a prestigious boarding school until the tragic accident that made her the ward of an uncle and aunt. Reading from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is one of Pringle's retreats from reality. It is only in the second half of the book that Pringle reaches Chicago.

Like other books in the Dear America series, which began in 1996, Down the Rabbit Hole features a strong-willed girl who writes about the daily events of her life. Historical detail is rich in the novel and explained in essays in the appendix. I was not disappointed by my choice and will alert my adult daughter that the series lives on.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose. Scholastic, 2013. 245p. ISBN 9780545297011.

The Tapir Scientist: Saving South America's Largest Mammal by Sy Montgomery

I'd like to get a job writing nonfiction nature books for children. Maybe I'd be assigned to great places like the Pantanal Wetlands in South America. I'd especially like it if I got to work with naturalists studying secretive wildlife. It would be worth fighting off the ticks and mosquitoes to get to see what so few people see. Author Sy Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop were so lucky. They visited and worked with Patricia Medici, whose work is described in The Tapir Scientist: Saving South America's Largest Mammal.

Not everyone knows tapirs, stout mammals that look like a cross between elephants and pigmy hippopotami but which are most closely related to horses. Of the four surviving species, three live in South America and one in Asia. Little is known about the lives of these rare animals, whose babies resemble watermelons, so the work of Brazilian biologist Medici and her team is innovative and highly important to wildlife conservation.

Montgomery and Bishop have traveled to remote locations in the past. In Saving the Ghost of the Mountain, they report on their work with scientists studying snow leopards in Mongolia. In that and their new book, they vividly describe the daily work of dedicated biologists. I found both books fascinating, much like watching an episode of PBS Nature.

Montgomery and Bishop's books are usually shelved in children's libraries, where many of the best books can be found.

Montgomery, Sy. The Tapir Scientist: Saving South America's Largest Mammal. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013. 80p. ISBN 9780547815480.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown feels like a dangerous book to me. I just read it and am feeling that I should blow off work today. Oh, I'll probably still go today, but maybe I'll skip tomorrow. Maybe not tomorrow, but sometime soon.

I'd like to read Mr. Tiger Goes Wild with young children. We'd all become wild animals and run about the park. But that may be too dangerous. We might all jump in a fountain.

I am feeling like spending the whole day outdoors, away from buildings and streets, out in the forest. Why is that? Maybe I will read Mr. Tiger Goes Wild again.

Brown, Peter. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. Little Brown and Company, 2013. ISBN 9780316200639.

Mr. Wuffles! by David Wiesner

Have you seen Mr. Wuffles! by David Wiesner? Mr. Wuffles is a cat who is very bored with typical cat toys. Jingle bells, yarn balls, shuttlecocks, ribbons through spools, cloth goldfish, and polka dot mice lay untouched against the baseboard of the room in which he rests. Most still have their price tags attached. Disinterested, Mr. Wuffles does not notice when a little gray spaceship lands among his toys. Then the colorfully-robed Insectoid people cheer their successful landing. What bad timing!

Insectoid scientists must not have designed their spacecraft to withstand attacks by felines. Mr. Wuffles bats and rolls the spacecraft about the hardwood floor, and a tiny trail of smoke escapes through the command deck's window. The tiny Insectoids hold their heads as they examine their equipment. How will they ever escape the dangerous watch of Mr Wuffles?

In Mr. Wuffles!, Wiesner has created a wonderful fantasy accessible to children who do not yet read. The only bit of dialogue is in Insectoid, a language that has not yet been decipher by anyone speaking an earth language. We are all equals as readers of Mr. Wuffles!, earthlings.

Wiesner, David. Mr. Wuffles! Clarion Books, 2013. 9780618756612.

Eight Dolphins of Katrina: A True Tale of Survival by Janet Wyman Coleman

Eight years after the events of August 2005, stories from Hurricane Katrina keep coming. Bonnie recently brought home a Katrina book bound to interest animal lovers of all ages, Eight Dolphins of Katrina: A True Tale of Survival written by Janet Wyman Coleman and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene. Kind as she always is, Bonnie shared the book with me.

Many Katrina stories focus on New Orleans. Not so with Eight Dolphins of Katrina. This story starts at the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, where keepers planned a move of some of their dolphins to hotel swimming pools four miles inland. There were not, however, enough pools to host all of the oceanarium's collection. Eight dolphins stayed at the coastal facility, which had withstood previous hurricanes.

On the morning of August 29, however, a forty-foot tidal wave crushed the dolphin house, collapsing its roof. As staff approached the building the next day, they dreaded looking into the dolphin pool but upon doing so were amazed to find it empty. They then looked out into the gulf and wondered whether the dolphins could have survived, and if so, where they could be found. Hurriedly they began a search.

The book subtitle gives away that Eight Dolphins of Katrina is a story with a happy ending. In telling it, the author includes several older stories about positive bonds between dolphins and humans. Nascimbene's blue-toned full page illustrations add drama to the story, and photographs showing the oceanarium, its dolphins, and its staff may be found with an account of the facts in the back of the book. Young and old will enjoy this beautiful book.

Coleman, Janet Wyman. Eight Dolphins of Katrina: A True Tale of Survival. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013. (40 pages) ISBN 9780547719238.

Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull

After I participated in August's Adult Reading Round Table panel discussion about whole collection readers' advisory, having used bird books in my part of the presentation, several of the ARRT members suggested bird-related books to me, and I read them. One that I enjoyed immensely was Summer and Bird, a fantasy for young readers written by Katherine Catmull.

I was greatly impressed with this first novel. Though Summer and Bird is marketed for young readers, it is very honest and mature in its presentation of problems within families and in its telling of two girls' quests for finding their roles in life. Most readers, however, will not be thinking in such literary terms while reading. They will instead be mesmerized by the unusual story involving two sisters who wake one morning to find themselves abandoned by their parents. Using a drawing left by their mother as a sort of map (the first of several such maps in the book), they set off to find their parents. In the process they pass from Up into Down and encounter many birds.

I wonder how much of this complicated story that young readers understand. Laura in the Youth Services Department at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library explained to me that authors for youth often write for several levels of understanding, including for parents who read to their children among their target audiences. I think that applies here, as the author remarks at the end of the book that this story originated from stories she told while babysitting. I think she created a story that she enjoyed herself while entertaining her young charges. It is a book that I think will interest many adults who enjoy nature-themed fantasy.

Read Summer and Bird with a child if you can. If not, still read.

Catmull, Katherine. Summer and Bird. Dutton Children's Books, 2012. 344p. ISBN 9780525953463.

Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman

Robert Arthur was unhappy to discover that he had been transferred to Lovecraft Middle School, despite its new state-of-the-art building, abundant technology, and student amenities. When his old school closed, his friends went to school across town. He would not know anyone, except the bully Glenn Torkells to whom he frequently paid a dweeb tax. Most of the teachers proved okay, but then he met Professor Goyle. How would he survive science class? At least he could find refuge in the library. Now just how big was that library? A student could get lost, and its dusty attic with the strange leather bound books was rather uncharacteristic of a new library reportedly stocked with all new books. Something was really weird about Lovecraft Middle School.

In Professor Gargoyle, the first book of Tales from Lovecraft Middle School, Charles Gilman recounts what Robert discovered in his first few weeks in his shiny new school about the building, the strange professor, and his own ability to cope with dangerous situations. In doing so, he assembled a surprising group of allies. Their story is just what young horror-loving readers will enjoy. It is also fun reading for anyone of any age who likes haunted houses and strange creatures.

Professor Gargoyle ends with a new challenge to Robert and his friends. Will they survive The Slither Sisters, book 2 in the series?

Gilman, Charles. Professor Gargoyle. Quirk Books, 2012. 168p. ISBN 9781594745911.

Chike and the River by Chinua Achebe

The late Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is most known for his novel Things Fall Apart, set in the 1890s when British colonization disturbed the balance of tribal societies across Africa. Not only did Achebe write several sequels to the story, he also wrote poetry, essays, and children's books. The first of the children's stories, Chike and the River, first published in 1966, has recently been reissued with bright new  illustrations by Edel Rodriguez.

Chike is a young Nigerian boy of eleven living in rural Umuofia with his widowed mother as the story begins, but he is soon sent to stay with his uncle in Onitsha, where he attends school and learns about city life. He is an innocent who sometimes falls prey to the deceptions of city boys.While he misses village life, he is ready for adventures that the city offers, particularly riding a ferry across the Niger River. His mother has warned him never to go close to the River, so you can easily imagine what he wants to do.

Written for children, Chike and the River is somewhat light and optimistic and has been criticized as not up to Achebe's standards for realistic fiction. Being just a big kid, I enjoyed it for the story and sense of place.

I read a digital library copy of Chike and the River (88 pages in print but unspecified as an ebook) using Overdrive Read, a new ebook reader that works on Internet browsers, saving the borrower from downloading any files. I started in Firefox on a PC running Window XP, switched to Safari on my iPhone, and finish in Chrome on an iMac. Overdrive claims that my place will be kept each time I switch devices, but that did not happen. Each time I logged in, I started at the beginning. Luckily, the table of contents made it easy to navigate, and it was helpful not having to download the files.

Achebe, Chinua. Chike and the River. Anchor Books, 1966. Illustrations, 2011. 88p. ISBN 9780307473868. eISBN 9780307742070.

The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson

There is always a danger of disappointment when old characters are resurrected for new tales, especially by authors generations after the originals. Will stories be carelessly modernized? Will character traits change? So, it was daring of the publisher Frederick Warne to invite actress Emma Thompson to write a new tale for Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. Thompson is unquestionably talented, but would she get it right?

Having now read The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, I think Thompson and her illustrator Eleanor Taylor got it right. Peter is still the irresponsible innocent who sees anything edible as his own. As in the original stories, he gets into trouble, what you might call a pickle if it weren't a radish. Mr. McGregor and Benjamin Bunny play roles in the comedy. And the setting is still the slow-paced 19th century British countryside, filled with verdant forests and ever-watching wildlife.

So, if you had doubts about the new tale, be reassured. You can never have too much Peter Rabbit. 

Thompson, Emma. The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit. Frederick Warne, 2012. 63p. ISBN 9780723269106.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

Bonnie brought home another great children's book. She does that a lot.

Everyone has a story. Because he loved books, Morris Lessmore wrote his story into his book every day. He was very content doing just this, but then a storm destroyed his home and scattered his library. Even the words from his book blew away. It was a blessing in disguise. In The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce, Morris then sees the lady with the flying books. She loans him one that takes him to a home for flying books.

As you may guess, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a book that children, parents, and librarians will love. Illustrated by Joyce with Joe Bluhm, it is beautiful, sweet, and right in line with everything that I believe. I hope that I can live my life so gracefully as Morris, i.e. be a little more understanding when all the books get out of order.

Read the author bio on the jacket to learn more about the origin and meaning of this fantastic book.

A short film inspired by Morris's story won an Academy Award. Take 15 minutes to watch. Enjoy.

Joyce, William. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN 9781442457027.

The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow

Can you imagine a time long before movies, radio, television, and the Internet? Public entertainment was found in gas-lit lecture halls and opera houses. Colorful posters glued to buildings and fences announced the shows. Young and old thrilled to learn a magician was coming to town. That was the world of Harry Kellar (1849-1922), once America's most famous magician. His story is told in the well-illustrated biography The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many of the most famous magicians touring the United States came from Europe. Kellar (born Heinrich Keller) was an exception. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, he had to tour other continents with his magic show for over a decade before he could compete in his native land. During that time he honed his skills, learning amazing tricks and illusions, including how to levitate Princess Karnac. Eventually he became the leading American magician.

Aimed at upper elementary or middle school readers, The Amazing Harry Kellar is an attractive book filled with reproductions of original Kellar lithographic posters and photographs of the time. Its quick-reading text describes the career of a now-forgotten entertainer who paved the way for later magicians, including Harry Houdini. Good for biography reports or pleasure reading.

Jarrow, Gail. The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician. Calkins Creek, 2012. 96p. ISBN 9781590788653.

Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat by Susanna Reich

"Like any self-respecting French cat, Minette wouldn't dream of eating food out of a can."

Luckily for Minette, she had Julia Child to cook for her. Even so, Child had to practice and improve her cooking to satisfy the discriminating taste buds of Minette. Lessons with Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu were essential. After months of study and testing, Child finally cooked a dish that was perfect for le poussiequette. "Ooh-la-la! Magnifique!"

With lovely illustrations by Amy Bates, Susanna Reich tells the story of a French cat wanting only the best and an American woman wanting to be a French chef in Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. Of course, most children will not realize that Child was a famous author and television celebrity, but I imagine a few will be delighted years from now when they make the link. In the meantime, young readers can enjoy a sweet story about a demanding cat served by a faithful human.

Reich, Susanna. Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN 9781419701771.

The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch

Just a week ago, I wrote about The Mighty Ted. This week, it is the mighty Spirit and the mighty Opportunity, NASA's Mars surface rovers that far exceeded the expectations of scientists and engineers in 2004. Both went about taking pictures and soil samples and then relaying data back to Earth beyond their three month missions. In fact, Opportunity in still chugging away. Science writer Elizabeth Rusch tells their stories in The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. 

The narrative begins on Earth with the dreams of science kid Steven Squyres, who got his first telescope at eight and tried to build a robot when he was nine. Of course, he grew up to be a NASA scientist whose proposal for Mars rovers was commissioned in the year 2000. Rusch tells how in less than four years Steve and a team of engineers, scientists, and contractors built the two rovers sent to opposite sides of the our sister planet. The story continues with the nail-biting landing and difficult explorations across the rock-strewn and sometimes sandy Martian surface.

Though aimed at late elementary or middle school readers, this book is perfect for an adult wanting to revisit the years of rover activity. It is a slim but substantial book. I spent about three hours reading and studying the many photos and maps of Mars. With the recent landing of Curiosity on Mars, this is a great time to put The Mighty Mars Rovers on display in libraries and bookstores.

Rusch, Elizabeth. The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012. 79p. ISBN 9780547478814.