Rover Throws a Party: Inspired by NASA’s Curiosity on Mars

This book is out-of-this-world spectacular! What a great way to take a real story and put a fictional twist on it.

I loved the illustrations in this book. They really gave a feel for Mars being dusty and gritty. The illustrations also gave great depictions of the environment of Mars, from dust devils to dust storms to craters.

I liked the words used about things that Curiosity did on Mars like traveling through craters, scooping up dirt and baking it, firing with its lasers, and taking self-portraits. I love how it was like a journal entry of counting down until its birthday party, but also explaining some of the things he is doing on Mars. The backmatter was very well done. It was great to go from the fictional story to see the real pictures and descriptions of Mars and Curiosity. I would recommend this book for four-to-eight-year-old kids that loves space or science in general. There are so many wonderful descriptions and great information in this book. My six-year-old was engaged the entire time and my three-year-old stayed seated but was in and out of focus.

My kid’s favorite parts:

My three-year-old and six-year-old wanted to see the dust devil page a second time. They thought it was cool that Mars has weather like we do on earth.