Mars fascinates me!
It’s Earth’s closest neighbor in the solar system, and we can see Mars faint reddish light with our own eyes. With the recent landing of Perseverance rover, Mars seems to be in the news more than ever. So with great enthusiasm I introduce a new picture book, MARS IS, which shares jaw-dropping photos of Mars.
Three years ago, while doing an author event at Chicago’s fantastic indy bookstore, 57th Street Books, I spotted an adult title, MARS: THE PRISTINE BEAUTY OF THE RED PLANET.
Inside, I discovered the most gorgeous photos of Mars I’ve ever seen. They took my breath away!
The images were color enhanced to allow scientists to see details on Mars their eyes couldn’t ordinarily detect. The photos were taken by a camera called HiRISE, and they were public domain! (Beautiful words to a nonfiction author, especially a space-geek like me.)
So I began researching HiRISE, the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. It launched from Earth in August 2005, soared through space for 7 months, then began orbiting Mars in March 2006.
HiRISE is riding on a spacecraft called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (or MRO for short.)
HiRISE has taken 69,000 photos of Mars in the past 15 years and is still sending new ones today.
Each image is transmitted roughly 140,000 miles to Earth, which takes about 15 minutes.
I couldn’t wait to share these photos and fascinating Mars features with young readers, so I considered various book ideas. This brainstorming process involved lots of scribbling on papers: title ideas, Mars features I wanted to include, a list of descriptive words, book organization outline, etc.
After much consideration, I decided “Mars Is” worked great as a title and a text repeater line to drive the story and introduce these amazing pictures.
Of course, there was much more information I wanted to include. So sidebars and an extensive back matter came to the rescue!
After studying Mars while working on MARS IS for three years, I believe the last spread of the book says it all:
* * * * * * * * * MARS FREEBIES FOR EVERYONE! * * * * * * * *
NASA’s Mars Photo Booth – Take a photo of yourself on Mars (or in mission control)
Sounds of Mars – Record a message and hear how your voice sounds on Mars
Send your name to Mars – And get your own Mars Boarding Pass!
MARS IS book trailer – See amazing HiRISE photos of Mars
HiRISE Catalog – Check out all of HiRISE’s phenomenal Mars photos
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last month’s blog post winner of June Almeida, Virus Detective! was Terry Jacobsen! 🙂
Congratulations, Suzanne! You is amazing!
Cynthia, you are the Queen of Amazing!
What a gorgeous book. I will look for it. Thanks for sharing your passion.
Thanks so much for your kind comments Carole! I hope you enjoy the book.
Wow! Suzanne! What a goldmine!!! And you are just the person to make it accessible for younger readers. So great having a peek at your brainstorming. Mars looks beautiful. Congratulations!!!
You are so sweet Vijaya! It was an exciting book to create and the research was fascinating (Mars IS fascinating!)
Thanks for a peek into your process. What an amazing planet and amazing journey for you as an author, Suzanne. I need to get some of your books!
Just wow!
Thanks for stopping by Kathy. Your enthusiasm is great!
A-MAZ-ING and BEAU-TI-FUL! And thank you for all the fun toys. I’ve never seen such an interactive and educational Picture Book Builder post.
I’m so glad you like all the fun Mars activities. NASA creates some awesome resources, so I enjoy sharing them with others!
All I can say is WOW! I absolutely love the pictures and all the fabulous information.
Just like earth it’s a patchwork quilt of landscapes.
That is so fascinating. Congratulations, Suzanne! Gorgeous pics and beautiful writing!
Wow! This book is perfect for kids…and adults.
Oh, this book looks awesome!
How amazing how you found this Mars idea! Congratulations!
This is great! And public domain images! Yay! Congratulations!
You’re so right Deb! Mars is full of landscapes and features just like Earth: volcanos, deserts, cliffs — it’s just missing our wonderful water.
This is SO COOL Suzanne!! Thank you for sharing about this awesome book and I just love hearing how the strike of that idea and the process of making it. Congrats!
The Mars ticket is the coolest.thing.ever.