The Lion of Mars
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4.6 • 33 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Life on Mars is pretty standard…. until a mysterious virus hits. Don’t miss this timely and unputdownable novel from the bestselling author of The Fourteenth Goldfish.
Bell has spent his whole life--all eleven years of it--on Mars. But he's still just a regular kid--he loves cats and any kind of cake, and is curious about the secrets the adults in the US colony are keeping. Like, why don't they have contact with anyone on the other Mars colonies? Why are they so isolated? When a virus breaks out and the grown-ups all fall ill, Bell and the other children are the only ones who can help. It's up to Bell--a regular kid in a very different world--to uncover the truth and save his family...and possibly unite an entire planet.
Mars may be a world far, far away, but in the hands of Jennifer L. Holm, beloved and bestselling author of The Fourteenth Goldfish, it can't help but feel like home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Peppered with such intriguing scientific details as the pervasive nature of Mars dust, Holm's (The Evil Princess vs. the Brave Knight) absorbing speculative novel is anti-isolationist at its core. Though 11-year-old Bell has always lived on Mars, he's a pretty regular kid: he loves cats, worries about friendships, and asks a lot of questions. Bell and four teenagers live with six adults and cat Leo in a homey, self-sustaining underground settlement "held together with duct tape," sharing chores (harvesting algae to manufacture toilet paper, for example) and learning about a perplexing Earth through digi-reels and the adults' memories. There are only a few rules in the Mars Settlement Mission, the most important being "no contact with foreign countries, ever," the result of a deep rift between various countries' settlements. When a serious virus strikes the adults, though, Bell and the other kids realize that the policy might become deadly. Holm's science fiction setting is rendered with a keen sense of place grounded by identifiable sociofamilial relationships (as the youngest, Bell is occasionally pressured into dangerous situations) and a clear philosophy about the power of cooperation: "Lions who are rejected by their pride do not survive long." Ages 8 12.
Customer Reviews
Good backstory
The backstory for this book was amazing. I loved how you put it in the perspective of the youngest child so that we know how the youngest is doing. Good book over all. You should totally make another book for a series
Best book ever!
I mean it Has so much adventure the book is great and it is a book that is so fun.
Amazing book for book report or for fun!
I love this book ! There’s so much to write about, since I’m using it for a summer reading- book report project. There’s so much action and the ending is just so wholesome. It definitely looks over in bringing people together and looking out for each other. If you ,or your child love sci-fi this is a great book.