A little science venture, that floats the basic knowledge of the great beyond, space the final frontier. It is sure to entertain your kids while they learn all about the science of space and all that revolves around it. An informative, educative, and entertaining book that enriches your children's minds.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Great book for kids who love space and astronomy. Lots of interaction and information. Better read for older kids.

The Universe by Danielle Futselaar has an interesting premise. It begins by telling the story of Luke and his friend, Maya. Luke is fascinated by all things space-related and, as the story begins, he is designing his ultimate spaceship to enter a contest. The winner and a friend receive a trip for two to see a test launch of the new Mars Explorer. Soon, Luke gets a phone call telling him that he is the first runner up- and the winner can’t accept the prize. He and Maya are headed to Florida! At this point, the fictional portion of the book goes slightly off-track. Luke and Maya begin snooping around the space center. They end up on the ship, go up into space, go for a spacewalk on Mars, and safely land the ship at the end of the day. In the end, Luke’s exciting story is just a sweet dream. Luke wakes up to find out that he is still the second prize winner.
The nonfiction portion of the book begins promptly after Luke wakes up from his nap. There is a table of contents that is more like a list of topics discussed. There is no page listing to help the reader find the information he needs. This is an ambitious book; it covers a wide range of topics from the solar system to galaxies to the zodiac to extraterrestrials. Unfortunately, this is too much information to be given justice in a 57-page book. Some of the content deals with fairly complex information like the big bang theory, primordial soup, and black holes. It is difficult to determine what the target audience for this book is when one looks at it as a whole. The storybook portion is “young” and geared toward a lower elementary school level, but there is some heavy information here that isn’t explained adequately.
I wouldn’t recommend The Universe for use in an academic setting. It lacks many basic reference tools. There isn’t a glossary, an appendix, or a list of additional resources. This book would be perfect, however for the budding space aficionado who can read the book and seek out additional information on their own. The diagrams and illustrations are a high point of this book and a student who has some background knowledge will find them useful.

A very interesting concept indeed! The book starts off with a fictional story with two friends, named Luke and Maya, who end up on a rocket ship to Mars.
The story is engaging and fun and will definitely hold the interest of children.

The other half of the book is filled with facts about space and space exploration, from the solar system to astrology- even how to become an astronaut. It’s like a space loving kid’s dream come true.

The thing I liked most about the book were the illustrations. They’re so beautiful and well done.
I could just look at the pictures all day.

I really liked this book and would definitely recommend it for children who are interested in space and space exploration, or who simply want to gain some knowledge about space!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book, for an honest review.

This book is a great combination of fiction and nonfiction. The fiction story is about two friends who get stuck on a spaceship headed to Mars. As you read the fiction story, each page includes facts about spaceships and space. The two kids have to solve some problems as the story progresses. This would be a great book to discuss problem and solution as well as rising and falling action. After the story is over, there are many pages of different diagrams and factual information about space and becoming an astronaut. There is a wealth of information in this book. It would be a great book to read to your class, or have your class read, while studying about outer space and space travel.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This books has an interesting set up as it's told as a story but also shares non fiction details about the universe. I found the short book easy to follow and engaging.

Hmmm… This mixture of science fiction and science fact doesn't get off to a good start. Our hero is telling his girl friend about a competition to be a guest of NASA at a space launch – all they have to do is design the most novel spacecraft. He also tells her the model he's submitting is the "coolest spaceship in Star Wars". You work it out. Still, he flukes it, and takes her, and avoiding all the box-out factoids that splash across the page to give us the educational side of things, finds secret goings on when they go on the lam in the space centre. Oh, and when they go on the lam they go on the lam in style – ending up on the rocket to Mars itself. A rocket that just so happens to have a prototype warp drive. And that just happens to have had several people muttering about how successful it's not going to be...

So the fiction side of this is rubbish; pure childishness with little to redeem itself, relying on blatant wish fulfilment. The information here isn't that great, either – it's all accurate and easily absorbed, but it comes in very small doses, in rather a scattershot order. It can't tell us why this unmanned trip to Mars has oxygen, space suits and everything else, but when we need to learn about the science of space, there is enough here to make it worth a look. The visuals and design are certainly strong elements, but as to the script it's wholly ignorable – especially the nonsensical ending.

So it's a good thing this is only half the book. Yes, in an ungainly switch at the midway point, we jump into a proper space encyclopaedia, with all the real stuff we should have been getting from the beginning. Schizophrenic, much? So here, and only here, are the bite-sized details we need to understand the Big Bang, the construction of the solar system, the prospects of a reader going to Mars, the star signs, space satellites, pretty much anything in fact that this young age bracket would want, and more. This is really nicely presented, accurate, and decent – so why the objectionable rubbish to pad it out? Half this book is four stars plus, the rest is undeserving of one.

The Universe is a fictional story peppered with facts and information about space exploration. When Luke and his friend Maya find themselves accidentally taking off to space in the Mars Cruiser, a wild adventure ensues! Following Luke and Maya's fictional adventure are more facts about space, planets, and more. This is a fun combination of fiction and nonfiction that will keep students interested, entertained, and reading.