Cover Image: Good Night, Oppy!

Good Night, Oppy!

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Member Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley, Astra Publishing House, and Astra Young Readers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a really great and fun read. The art style was super adorable and this book was just as educational as it was fun!

I highly recommend this book!

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I love this book! It is a very cute and informative look at the Opportunity rover and it's mission on Mars. Great for fans of science and space.

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Kids who enjoy outer space and learning about the Mars rover would appreciate this title. It is a good one to recommend to those interested in space and NASA.

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Good night oppy is a somewhat fictionalized tale of a real life mars rover named oppy. This book has a fun story, but includes lot of neat tidbits about space rovers and Mars. Oppy was a recordbbreaking space rover who made many discoveries about Mars history. This story is fun for all kids, but especially great for those who love space.

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Sweet, but a little bit underwhelming factually. Kids understand a lot more than we give them credit for, and this book just felt like it didn't understand that.

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This is a wonderfully illustrated adventure to the surface of Mars! I would recommend this to anyone who wants to introduce their child to STEAM related activities. This book presents real facts about the Mars rover, Opportunity, or "Oppy" for short. Children with any interest in the stars and space will love the colorful and playful illustrations of Oppy's adventures.

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What a wonderful way to introduce children to the equipment being used to help us understand other planets! The book is easy to understand. It explains why Oppy is on Mars and what it was there to do. It includes the reasons that Oppy is no longer working and that it has completed its job. The illustrations are wonderful. Both my seven-year-old and three-year-old grandsons enjoyed it.

I received an ARC from Astra Publishing House through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

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This cool book mixes the fictional adventures with a real robot and real jobs the robot did to tell readers about Opportunity aka Oppy and the planet Mars. Oppy was only supposed to go on a 90 day mission but actually got to be a teenager. They spent 14 years exploring. This story was just darling and great for science nuts and everyone else.

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Informative book to help kids understand the purpose of Oppy and what she accomplished on the surface of Mars. Liked the story that was shared and was sad at the ending when Oppy went to sleep forever. What’s the likelihood that the dust on Oppy’s solar panels are removed and then she can recharge again?

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Did I just tear up reading a picture book about a Mars rover? Yes. This isn't a sad picture book - it's actually really charming and sweet with lots of great science facts included - but I'm a sucker for stories about the ways that scientists interact with these rovers.

A must-have for any collection looking to include quality nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and books about space, robots (close enough), or anthropomorphic elements.

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A wonderful picture book about the Mars rover Opportunity, nicknamed Oppy for her story. It tells the whole story of Opportunity, even the tough goodbye, and gives the reader a full picture of the life of a Mars rover. The art is full of color and personality. I love that this is a book readers can grow with - you can start with the story itself, then go into more detail with the facts placed throughout the book.

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Oppy has an important job to
do. He’s been sent to explore Mars and send information back to his friends on Earth. For fourteen years, Oppy does his job, until a major storm hits Mars. Can Oppy get the last of his data back to Earth?
Good night, Oppy by James McCowan, illustrated by Graham Carter, and published by Boyds Mills Press is a great introduction to the Mars Rover Opportunity for kids. McCowan does a great job of giving Oppy personality and Carter’s adorable art is sure to make kids, and adults, fall in love with the precocious robot. Fun facts scattered throughout will have your little scientist in training begging for more information on the red planet!

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My daughter and I are amateur astronomers, space geeks, NASA nerds, whatever you want to call us. She and I both wept a few tears when the Opportunity rovers was enveloped by the sandstorm. My daughter teaches astronomy to a local class of 5th graders. She had the greatest fun teaching them about the different rovers on Mars during the same week that Perseverance landed on Mars. I so wish we had had this book available when she was teaching the Mars class.

This book is charming with darling illustrations. It captures the personification of Opportunity well. The scientists at JPL dearly loved their little rover, and its personality is captured well in this book.

If you have any space geeklings in your life (or harbor your own inner space geekling), then I highly recommend this book. I will definitely be purchasing it when it is published this fall.

I gratefully received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

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I love books about space and stories that teach kids about important discoveries in a way that is interesting to them. Good night, Oppy covers both things.

The art and color palette was very beautiful, and for the story well.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and would definitely gift this book to my nephews!

I was provided this book to read in exchange for an honest opinion, and would like to thank Boyds Mills Press, NetGalley, James McGowan, and Graham Carter for the opportunity.

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Good Night, Oppy! Is an absolute joy to read. The book itself is gorgeous, the illustrations succeed at both personifying and literally looking like Opportunity., and the landscapes are stunning. The characterization of Oppy is well suited for a child-friendly explanation of her job and function without being too fantastical to teach accurately. I know "humans will pack bond with literally anything" is basically a meme at this point but I don't think I'm alone in having fond memories related to Oppy and seeing her fully realized as a character and showing her work as an interplanetary detective was an absolute joy.
I appreciate that the book contained a simplified story and then inset on each page was a more detailed explanation of what was being referenced. I feel like this format allows this book to be adaptable to different age groups and reading levels and facilitates discussion with young learners, which will be really helpful for both home and classroom reading. I'd recommend this book for all ages, and even as an adult I definitely learned details I either didn't know or had forgotten about the mission and discoveries.
I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley. I am under no obligation to review the book. All opinions are my own

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Good Night, Oppy! tells the story of the Mars Opportunity rover, simplified and fictionalized for children.

The illustrations were my favorite part of this storybook; they were absolutely adorable, but detailed enough that kids could get a feeling for what the rover and Mars actually look like. I loved how Oppy was anthropomorphized, and her expressions were very charismatic. The limited color pallet of shades of gray and pink made for very impactful and fun illustrations that are a joy to look at. These illustrations are so well done that they would be great to transform into art prints to include with a special edition of the book, for example.

The story was simple and engaging enough that it would keep young readers hooked, and I loved that it was paired with more straightforward facts for those who want a deeper dive into the real Oppy, without losing any context for younger story-focused readers who may not be ready for those sections yet. These sections also give parents (or teachers) background information that they can use to describe and talk about the pictures and events of the story to kids who aren’t ready to focus on the factual sections quite yet.

This book sometimes used words that seemed a bit advanced for the target audience (especially in the facts section) and could easily have been switched out for more approachable words, but this can be used as an opportunity (no pun intended) to increase the children’s vocabulary.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and can see myself buying it for my son to enjoy when he’s a bit older.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Absolutely adorable book perfect for space lovers of all ages. I loved seeing things from Oppy’s perspective, and am rhapsody the author didn’t shy away from Oppy’s final message. The art is vibrant and e catching, and I’ll definitely be getting this one for my space living nephew.

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This book is incredibly cute! I recently read Happy Birthday Curiosity with my kindergarten students when the new rover landed on Mars and they are obsessed! I love the idea of sharing a "personal" rover story with them that also has side by side facts.

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Good Night Oppy! is a picture book showing Opportunity's 15 years on Mars. Opportunity was adorable. The art style was so cute. Since Opportunity is a robot it is mostly shades of gray. But shades of pink were added and it really balanced the color pallet. My favorite part was the Mar's dust storm. The way it was written and drawn created tension. I already knew what was going to happen but I still found myself sucked in and unable to put it down.

4 stars.

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Fictionalized account of the Mars Opportunity Rover. Endearing robotic rover tells the story of the Mars mission, its challenges, successes and dysfunctions. Back matter includes photos of the rover, tracks on the planet and a mineral found. This is a terrific book to engage young kids, encourage interest in science and tech, and bring the Mars mission into focus for them.

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