Birthday on Mars!

"Greetings from Curiosity, roving the red planet since 2012!

With a wave of its arm, Curiosity introduces itself and the barren Martian landscape (“No humans have ever been here before. Isn’t that cool?”), then, while sending a celebratory selfie back to friends on Earth, sings “Happy birthday to me”—a ditty it actually was programmed to hum, though just on the first anniversary of its landing. In his blocky painted illustrations, Ross sends the excitable rover (“Oops—I made a dust cloud! I guess I should slow down”) trundling through a Martian sunset while extolling the virtue for which it was named, then switches planetary settings to show some of Curiosity’s “billions of friends” (or a diverse crowd of them, at least) gathered in a science museum for the party. With its boxlike, six-wheeled body, single arm, and red-lensed camera on a movable stalk, the rover manages to project lots of personality. For readers who are still, well, curious, Schonfeld closes with a page of Mars and Mars rover facts, plus the news that a new rover will be on its way in the near future. With its diminutive trim, the book even recalls a birthday card.

A sweet interplanetary message from a narrator who sounds for all the world like a younger version of the one in Markus Motum’s more seriously detailed Curiosity (2018). (Picture book. 5-7)"

-- Kirkus Reviews


Birthday on Mars! Audio Book Review

"Marissa Czyz is the voice of the Mars rover CURIOSITY, ambling across the surface of the red planet. She shares information about how it spends its days and even sings its "Happy Birthday to Me" song. Czyz is an unobtrusive narrator, letting the novelty of the birthday celebrant steal the show. Specifically, listeners hear how it celebrates its birthday—stirring up a dust cloud in its hurry to send a picture back to Earth and to share conversations with Earth. Czyz adds emphasis to the notion that humans should be as curious as CURIOSITY is. Additional facts about Mars—home to rovers since 1997—and a shout-out to the newest rover, INSIGHT, which will examine Mars below the surface, complete the production."

-- AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine