TeacherDance: Blog Tour And Giveaway!

Here's another book for children's imagination and adventure with real facts! This one by Carole P. Roman is illustrated by Mateya Arkova.

I first wrote about a geography series of educational books by Carole P. Roman about a year ago. You can find that post here. Carole's most recent adventure takes her out of this world, to MARS! Check out all the information below, and the hashtag #IfYouWereMeAndLivedI on twitter.

Carole has explored different settings in history, and various places around the world, helping kids imagine what their lives would be like if living in that time or in that place. In this journey, it's become important to show the time necessary, both to make the trip (about six months) and about how long you would stay (about two years). The book imagines a child going at age ten and returning to Earth at thirteen, a teenager.

It's not easy to include the information needed to explain just how this all will work, but Carole includes needed facts about how different life will be when you're on Mars. I actually read the book to my five-year-old granddaughter, who was fascinated. While she doesn't understand all the science in the book, she liked pretending to be on Mars. She learned that one must wear a spacesuit outside because the air (mostly carbon monoxide) there isn't safe to breathe. And she loved the idea of jumping very high because of the lower gravity. Pictures help the understanding a lot, and there are great illustrations on each page.

Carole has included why Mars is named, the size differences between it and Earth and how these two planets are at their closest point about every two years (perihelion) and that's the best time to travel there or to travel home. As for those scientific words, each one's pronunciation and explanation are given within the text, giving an 'ease' of reading when new scientific words are added.

For a relatively short book, there is much to learn about a colony that lives on Mars, the protection given by the structures created for living, the growing of food, how each adult has a particular expertise, like doctors and biologists, and the special Martian weather to watch out for! For those interested in the now real possibility of an expedition to outer space, this is one book that will educate and entertain. It will also spark interest in further research. A helpful glossary is added at the end.