Max Goes to Jupiter: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog (Science Adventures with Max the Dog series) Hardcover – October 1, 2008

Book for Summer Reading Program.

I was discussing the Max books with a ten year old girl. She said "I love, love all the books. They are soooooo good!! My Mom likes them too.I hope there are more soon !! "

Oh man, I came so close to giving this book only 2 stars. What a travesty that would have been! My daughter and I listened to this book read by astronaut Mike Hopkins as part of the Story Time from Space program. He only read the fictional parts featuring Max and the astronauts. I thought the book was ridiculous and misleading. I told my daughter the book should have been labeled as science fiction. She was amazed that life had been found on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. I told her that was absolutely not true. I was worried she would end up getting fact and fiction confused. I was annoyed that Story Time from Space had even chosen such an inane book to feature.When you watch one of the Story Time from Space videos, they really do not give you a good look at the illustrations of the book. Since this book is free on Kindle Unlimited, I downloaded it to check out the illustrations so I could comment on them in my review. Well, guess what I found? The best, best, best part of the book was left out of the reading! Those text boxes on each page that are packed with fabulous science, are amazing!! All the 5 star reviews suddenly made sense. The boxes explain what scientists know and what they still hope to discover. The boxes discuss some of the hypotheses that the text of the story shows as reality. The story is science fiction but it is a conduit that allows kids to visualize how the future might look depending on the technological and scientific advances. This book went from a grudging 2 star to an over-the-top 5 star. I learned so much not just my daughter! Yea!So, while I love the Story Time in Space program, if you listen to this story you really need to actually see the book as well. This book works fine on my Kindle app on the iPad although it took some time for me to figure how to navigate the text and the boxes. Once I got the hang of it though it was no problem. Some of the illustrations in the text boxes were hard to see but considering the download was free with KU, it was not a bad exchange. Bottom line, this is a great book for a budding astrophysicist, astronaut, or even a regular first grader and her mom!

This is a story about a Rottweiler named Max who travels to the planet Jupiter. It is a picture book that is important in our current society, considering the president signed a Space Policy Directive which calls for NASA to send astronauts back to the moon. The book is filled with facts and bits of information. So much so, that is makes it a bit overwhelming for your typical parent/child story time. The book would need to be broken up into several reading sessions to get through it all. Therefore, I believe it is more appropriate for classroom teachers who use the book as teaching tool.

This book is part science history lesson, part astronomy and physics lessons, part Greek history, and much more, told through captivating and scientifically accurate sidebars of text that complement the main narrative about Max the Dog's visit to Jupiter and its moons. The illustrations are gorgeous. The first words out of my 7-year-old's mouth were, "We need to read Max Goes to Mars and Max Goes to the Moon too!" The adults and older kids learned a lot from it too.

I love the way this book is laid out. A story in the middle and facts on both sides on each page to go deeper into the science facts. As a bonus it is an Accellerated Reader book so students can read it and take tests. A wealth of knowledge in the book. I met the author at a reading conference and he really has a passion for this topic. If you want to hear an astronaut read the story go to storytimeinspace.com and listen.

Interesting story about a manned mission to Jupiter. I love the "science boxes" on each page that describe the technology or science behind the story. Even more interesting, you can see this and other stories read from the ISS at storytimefromspace.com

As an educator that strives to inspire children with a passion for math and science it is critical to equip myself with tools that enable me to do so. Max goes to Jupiter is one such tool. It has a wonderful blend of storytelling and accurate science. It has plenty of additional space facts to inspire the adults that read the books with their children. I firmly believe that the author has carefully selected science facts to compliment the stories and this enables the reader to learn more about space than just Max's adventures. The book is well written, well-illustrated and a fabulous read! As the proud owner of all three books in the series I can personally reccomend all three books.