Patrick O'BrienBesprekingen

reviewed - Katrina

Wow. This one is so much fun to read aloud.

This terrific book, told in the second person, asks "Would you like to go to Mars?" Then it takes you, the reader, up a space elevator, to a space station, to a space ship, to another station, and down to a habitat on Mars' surface, where you see how scientists and engineers use robots to maintain their colony, explore the world, and search for microscopic life. By addressing his audience so directly, O'Brien effectively pulls the reader -- or kid listening to the story -- into this imagined future. O'Brien's 42 paintings are fully realized concepts of future technology and have a dimensional reality that adds to the immersive feel of the book.

My case study child is obsessed with trains. He loves learning facts and I thought this book would be a great addition to his collection. It tells the entire history of trains from a family occupation perspective which helps it be more engaging then just a fact book.

If Star Trek (the Original Series) and Buck Rogers had a Baby, and that Baby had a kid with the Old School Batman series, this would be it - but with Dinosaurs.

Hilarious and cheesy, with bold bright art and detailed illustrations, the reader follows the intrepid Captain Raptor and his crew to the stars. There, they face dangerous animals and intriguing mysteries.

Children will adore the fun adventures and catch-phrases tossing Dinos and parents might actually not hate reading this one more than a few times. As an adult (and sci-fi lover) I found this laugh-out-loud funny and will be purchasing the rest of the series. Onward to the Stars!½

This book describes what it would be like to visit Mars. The text is very informational and is told from a child's perspective while going on a trip to Mars. The book provides readers with factual information about the planet, including it's atmosphere, distance from Earth, gravity, and more. I love how the book was written in a way that provides readers with factual information while also keeping them interested. I have never read a book like this before. It doesn't just list a bunch of facts like some other informational texts do, but it also has a story line. I also like the section at the end, "More About Mars". I think this book would be great to use in a science class, when teaching about the planets.½

This a really interesting and factual book about mammoths. I learned a lot that I did not know, such as there were once mammoths the size of dogs! This book has a ton of facts to offer about mammoths, their lives, and their extinction. This book is a great one for history or science class. This book is even great to pick up for a fun read.

Funny adventure for 6-8 year-olds, funny & loving satire for big kids and young-at-heart grown-ups.  I call it a success and recommend it.  I do think the jokes would get old, though, and will not seek out the sequel.  Definitely I admire the artwork of O'Brien and would love to see more of his luscious work.

You get a real sense of how big the dinosaurs were in this picture book. A stegosaurus stands alongside a VW Bug, a brachiosaurus towers over a cherry picker and a seismosaurus dwarfs a bulldozer.

I thought this book was interesting for a few reasons. I think that the information is accurate and well organized. The plot places the reader in to the experience of actually traveling to Mars, what you would need, how you would get there, how you would prepare, etc. This book's illustrations are both imaginative (Martian life), and carefully drawn to accurately portray space ships, astronaut suits, and landscapes. The big idea of this book is to show the reader what a journey to Mars would entail. I think it does a great job of accomplishing this.

A decent book. The theoretical science and technology was fun to see but over all there was just something missing.
Maybe I have read too many things on Mars but it just felt very flat and didn't have that punch most kids books have.

This book is a great beginner book for kids to learn about dinosaurs. I like how most of the pictures show the dinosaur next to an object to let the reader get an idea of how big they were. I think it would have been helpful to have the pronunciation of the names though because some are difficult.

THE HINDENBURG introduces students to the tragedy that is the Hindenburg disaster. This book would be appropriate for third to fifth grade students to read, especially if they were interested in aviation. This book explores early floating airships and their evolution to the Hindenburg, the best airship of its kind. The Hindenburg made many round-trip voyages to America and South America before exploding in a tragic accident. It is still unknown why the Hindenburg exploded. Students who love aviation would like reading this book because airships are very interesting. The format of the book is easy for students to read independently. It would have been more effective if the author would have used real photographs of the Hindenburg instead of illustration. However, the illustrations are beautiful so students will still get the idea of what these massive ships looks like. The author does not list any resources used to create the book nor does he list his qualifications. Thus, the accuracy of the book is questionable. However, overall, I feel this book would be good to use in the classroom as an enrichment book for students who want to learn more about aviation.

Every child adores cats and this is a fun way to build interest in the study of extinct species. This book can be read by upper elementary grade students to build interest before a research assignment on how we can save other animal species from extinction.

Note: Not by Patrick O'Brian-with-an-'a' who also wrote about ships. :P

This is a nicely advanced picture book giving short accounts of the stories of a variety of famous ships, from Viking longboats to an aircraft carrier. The accounts each describe an exciting event in the ship's history narrative-style. Each story is accompanied by dramatic paintings of the ships in action and by a small schematic drawing of the hull and rigging of the ships; the endpapers collect all the schematics to scale.

This would be an excellent book to push a small child who is interested in boats; for an adult, the schematics and paintings still make a good art reference.½

The Mutiny on the Bounty, by Patrick O’Brien, is the story of Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian and the other officers and sailors’ voyage on the Bounty. This book is beautifully illustrated with watercolors and the layout is similar to that of a graphic novel. Provided by the author are maps, a drawing and labeling of the Bounty, visual descriptions of the food eaten by the voyagers, etc. to enhance the factual details of the trip, as well as a list of resources at the end of the book. This book would be a great extension of the elementary social studies curriculum. The action-packed content, including the fighting amongst the men, the burning of the ship, the suspense of what would happen to Captain Bligh and his men, as well as Christian and the others who overthrew the captain will engage readers and excite them about the possibilities of other adventures in history.

An illustrated introduction to what it might be like to live on Mars, covering a boy's journey into orbit, across the solar system, and into an inhabitable station on the red planet. Includes facts about Mars.

This book gives facts about all of the different boats from history.

With photograph-like paintings and detailed text, this book relates what might happen if a child were to visit Mars. I was taken by the pictures and the details of what a child might experience.A little from the book:“You can’t go out on the surface of Mars without a space suit. There’s not enough oxygen to breathe, and it is much too cold. You carry air in tanks on your back, and your suit keeps you warm. Gravity on Mars is less than half as strong as on Earth, so you take big, bouncing steps.”Children’s reactions:The children who looked at this book commented on how real the pictures looked. They were pretty evenly divided as to those who liked the book and those who did not.

The science fiction picture book gives much information about trains and locomotives but the characters involved are fictional. Through the illustrations and the diagrams the body of a train is well defined.
The style would be defined as average not excellent because there is no creative touch and catches the readers attention. The flow of the book is smooth and interesting but not hooked½

#49. 2007

This is a fairly easy book for children about the (hopefully! :D) extinct Carcharodon Megalodon, an ancient shark three times as big as a modern great white. Nice illustrations, and lots of comparisons between Meg and other, more familiar, creatures - both prehistoric and contemporary. My son and I both enjoyed this book.

TIFG492I

Describes seventeen twentieth-century historic flights and their pilots, from the Wright brothers to those of the space shuttles.