Hello, friends! Our book today is Curiosity: The Story Of A Mars Rover by Markus Motum, a fun- and fact-filled look at the titular robot.

All alone on Mars, Earth’s closest planetary neighbor, there is a robot named Curiosity, roaming the planet’s surface and conducting experiments on what it finds. Told from the intrepid bot’s point of view, the reader is given a brief idea of why Curiosity is there: because human beings always want to learn more about the universe around them. Following in the bootprints of Neil Armstrong and the other men and robots that came before it, Curiosity was built for exploration and data acquisition on Mars, and with the ability to conduct experiments and send data back to Earth. This was a feat of years of research, design, engineering, and astronautics, and culminated in Curiosity’s groundbreaking voyage and landing on Mars. Now the robot is exploring the far-off planet, and leaving treadmarks where it goes – hopefully someday, footprints with join them.

Fascinating! I was so impressed by how jam-packed with information this was, from the main narrative to fun facts scattered throughout to wonderful appendix. Even art is opportunity for more learning, such as providing a USA map with labeled states or a solar system with planets’ names during sections covering the robot’s travels. The text is highly informative, yet having it told in Curiosity’s voice keeps it from being too dry. The space-age inspired art is perfect, keeping things simple yet engaging and providing great visual aids for the facts. It is a bit on the lengthy side, though – JJ started to get a bit squirmy by the end – and would probably be better saved for slightly older bookworms. But overall, it’s an enlightening and inspirational look at a modern marvel, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved!