January 1, 2012
In this series, a girl or boy space traveler, accompanied by a pet dog or cat, undertakes a space mission to explore the title planet. The information, though selective, is succinct and easy to understand. Digital cartoon illustrations look 1950s retro-ish. Not a required purchase for libraries, but the format may engage readers to seek out meatier information. Reading list. Glos., ind.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2011

Gr 2-3-Brief but well stocked with details, these titles invite readers to travel to a planet to explore both its surface and interior or, in the case of Earth, to observe from space. Aside from an awkwardly phrased line in Mercury about how steam "could have turned into liquid and froze into ice," the content is well presented both in main narratives and in closing summaries. Unfortunately, rather than space photos, or at least digital paintings to go with the planets' often tantalizingly described features, the illustrations are all flat, "Dora the Explorer" style cartoons of a multicultural cast of smiling young travelers and their pets zooming through space in retro spacecraft or posing in generic settings.

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Grades 2-4 Hooray! A mission to Jupiter! You couldn't really go to Jupiter, the book begins. Oh. Well, imagining it is pretty fun, too. Cartoon illustrations of a boy (a stand-in for you) and his Chihuahua in a rocket ship simulate a fantastical trip to the faraway planet. Each spread devotes itself to one area: Imagine you could squash all the planets into one. That planet would only be half as heavy as Jupiter! Meanwhile, smaller facts further clarify the lesson: If Jupiter were a giant bag, you could stuff more than 1,400 Earths inside it. Burroughs' illustrations remain too close to the boy astronaut to bestow any real sense of scale, but we nevertheless learn about a lot of cool stuff, from the Great Red Spot to the famous moons of Io and Europa. Higgins never takes her eye off the story, either: You're tired by now . . . you can't wait to return to planet Earth. The slightly heavier How Do Scientists Know about Jupiter? closes out this fine entry in the Planets series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)