Mars (True Books)

Elaine Landau is the author of several nonfiction books for children.

Grade 5-7-Correcting old errors and adding new information, Landau updates her 1991 introductions to the next two planets beyond Earth. There have been plenty of developments in the meantime including the Ulysses and Galileo probes that have provided close-up views of Jupiter and its moons, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's spectacular crash into that planet, and Mars Pathfinder's considerably softer landing in 1997 to launch little Sojourner. Along with a generous selection of paintings and enhanced-color photos, readers will get a summary of our developing knowledge of each planet, plus a glimpse of plans for future exploratory missions. Both accounts close with lists of books, Web sites, and places to visit. Despite the revisions, these titles still lag well behind events-particularly Mars, which goes into generalities after Pathfinder and mentions the Mars Polar Lander not at all-and so are recommended for supplementary purchase, after such titles as Seymour Simon's Destination: Jupiter (Morrow, 1998) and Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy's The Mystery of Mars (Crown, 1999).
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.