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Returnable | Yes |
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Resolutions | Eligible for refund or replacement |
Return Window | 30 days from delivery |
Refund Timelines | Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here. |
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The Lion of Mars Hardcover – January 5, 2021
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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.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level3 - 7
- Lexile measure530L
- Dimensions5.69 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- PublisherRandom House Books for Young Readers
- Publication dateJanuary 5, 2021
- ISBN-100593121813
- ISBN-13978-0593121818
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From the Publisher
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TURTLE IN PARADISE | TURTLE IN PARADISE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL | FULL OF BEANS | PENNY FROM HEAVEN | THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH | THE THIRD MUSHROOM | |
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Customer Reviews |
4.7 out of 5 stars
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4.6 out of 5 stars
230
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4.8 out of 5 stars
376
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4.7 out of 5 stars
403
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4.5 out of 5 stars
2,345
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4.8 out of 5 stars
453
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Price | $7.89$7.89 | $8.89$8.89 | $8.99$8.99 | $7.98$7.98 | $7.18$7.18 | $8.99$8.99 |
Read more from award-winning author Jennifer L. Holm! | The Newbery Honor winning novel about the adventures of 11-year-old Turtle. | A graphic novel adaptation of the Newbery Honor winning novel about the adventures of 11-year-old Turtle. | Join Beans and his gang of streetwise kids as they navigate life during the Great Depression. | Penny and her cousin Frankie have big ideas for the summer, but things do not go according to plan. | Celebrate the wonder of science in this perfect read about a child's relationship with her grandfather! | Ellie teams up with her grandpa to find the formula for eternal youth. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The plot and setting are elegantly simple, yet the story proves completely engaging, driven by a charming cast of gentle characters and, more so, by Holm’s lean, measured prose, which moves briskly and seems to strike a resonant note on every page." —Booklist, starred review
“A delightful space adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The Lion of Mars looks past the red dust to reveal how our communities shape us just as much as our environments.” —Bookpage
"The well-wrought setting, including thoughtful depiction of lowish-tech Martian life, and a strong cast of well-developed characters make for an intriguing and compelling read.” —The Horn Book
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Nest
The trip to Mars was the hardest thing they’d ever experienced. That’s what the grown-ups said. The small, cramped ship. The constant fear of something going wrong. The knowledge that they could never return to Earth.
But honestly, it sounded like a cakewalk compared to sharing a bedroom with Albie.
Because he snored.
I hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since Albie started bunking with me. I’d tried just about everything to block the noise: earplugs, sleeping under the blanket, even a thick hat with earflaps. But none of them worked.
It was surprising because Albie was perfect. He was easygoing and did his chores without complaining. Of all us kids, he was the least likely to throw a fuss. The grown-ups trusted him, even Sai. But it turned out there was one thing Albie wasn’t good at: sleeping quietly. And I didn’t know which was worse: Albie’s snoring or Trey wanting to change rooms
For as long as I could remember, Trey had slept in the bed across from mine. My drawings of cats and his drawings of aliens had papered the walls. Our plastic models crowded the shelves together. Then, two months ago, Trey suddenly asked to switch bedrooms. Next thing I knew, Trey was sleeping across the hall in the older kids’ room with Vera and Flossy, while Albie was snoring in mine.
And me?
I wasn’t sleeping at all.
Neither was Leo, from the looks of it. The old cat was sitting up in bed, flicking his tail in annoyance.
This room-switching thing had happened once before. Back when Trey and I were little, the grown-ups had moved us boys into one room and the girls into the other. Albie was older than me and Trey and so he was allowed to stay up later. The problem was that Albie would make a lot of noise when he came to bed, and he’d wake us up. The experiment was abandoned after a week. Now, all these years later, Albie was keeping me awake again.
Across the room from me, Albie let out a loud, waffling snort. I groaned, pulling the pillow over my head.
“Albie,” I said.
He didn’t move.
“Albie!” I shouted.
He sat up abruptly, looking around the dimly lit room in confusion. Albie was tall, with broad shoulders. Darby said he would’ve made a good football player. Football was an Earth game where you threw around a ball and knocked into people. I didn’t really understand it.
“What’s wrong, Bell?” Albie asked, his hair sticking out crazily everywhere. It was always funny to see him without his Dodgers ball cap. He only took it off at bedtime.
“You’re snoring!” I said.
“Oh,” he said. “I thought there was an emergency.”
“It is an emergency! I can’t sleep!”
“I’m so sorry, Bell,” he mumbled, and lay back down. “I promise not to snore anymore.”
It was hard to be angry at Albie. He was kind and gentle—a big teddy bear when it came right down to it.
A big snoring teddy bear.
“Aw, dust it,” I muttered. Albie could have the room to himself. I grabbed my blanket and left, Leo padding after me.
Not that I blamed him.
Even a cat couldn’t take Albie’s snoring.
V
Leo and I walked down the twisting corridor, our way lit by the cool blue light of nighttime. The light changed to mirror the time of day. In the morning, the blue would transform to a warm, bright yellow. This was supposed to help us have a sense of time because the settlement was mostly underground. It had been built in a giant lava tube—a massive, cavelike space left behind by flowing lava millions of years ago. It was the perfect prebuilt habitat, keeping us safe from the surface dangers of Mars—radiation, extreme freezing temperatures, and dust.
The interior walls were constructed from a space-tech gray rubber that curved gently, flowing from one room to the next like a smile. The rooms were round, almost bubble-like, for improved structural integrity. Sai told me he’d thrown out the old rules when he designed the settlement. Apparently, on Earth, people lived in boxy structures with hard corners.
Earth sounded sharp to me.
This corridor was a history of my childhood. There was the spot where I banged into the wall with my scooter. The scratches on the ceiling from when I’d tried to make my toy spaceship fly. (It didn’t work.) And, of course, the ruler on the wall where Meems recorded our growth with a thick black pen. She joked that as some of the first human children to grow up on Mars, we were a living experiment.
Farther down the way was a board with digi-pics of us when we’d arrived on Mars. We were much older now than the babies on the wall. Albie was seventeen, the oldest in Earth years. Then came Flossy (sixteen), Vera (fifteen), Trey (fourteen), and me (eleven).
I might have been the youngest, but at least I still knew how to have fun. Unlike the older kids who became moody grumps when they turned thirteen.
Of course, in Mars years we were much younger. It took Mars 687 days to go around the sun, so a “Mars year” was 687 days, which meant I was only five and Trey was seven.
Ahead of me, Leo stopped to sniff at something, his tail flicking in the air. When I was little, there had been a lot of cats. Bella. Mochi. Harley. Sesame. Little Cat. As the years went by, the cats died, and Leo was the only one left. But I still remembered them all.
Then Leo and I were leaving the children’s wing and passing the shared areas—the recreation room and the mess hall and kitchen—that bookended the two sleeping wings. The recreation room was illuminated by the flickering light of a digi-reel that someone had left playing.
Like the rest of the settlement, the room was painted a pale blue. It was supposed to be a soothing color that mimicked the Earth sky. There was an L-shaped couch with a loop rug woven from old clothing. Darby had created the rocking chair from plastic barrels. Everything was recycled on Mars. Even the plant that decorated the room was made from algae paper, although it was getting old and the leaves had become brittle and started to crumble.
Aside from the couch and rocking chair, there was the small plastic table we had played at when we were little. These days, it held Flossy’s sewing machine and fabric instead of our clay and crayons. Then there was the plastic display case next to the wall, which housed the rocks we children had collected over the years.
After that was the mess hall. It smelled like tonight’s supper: an algae casserole that was one of Salty Bill’s standard meals. No one was around, so I made a quick stop in the kitchen and grabbed a few ginger cookies. Salty Bill didn’t like anyone taking food when he wasn’t there, but I figured he wouldn’t miss them.
Then I was in the grown-ups’ wing. First was Meems’s room. I could find my way to it with my eyes closed; when we woke up sick at night, she was the one we went to. Past it was Salty Bill’s room. Across from it was Phinneus’s room. As I passed Eliana and Darby’s room, I could hear soft snoring. Eliana had always complained about her husband’s snoring, but I never understood what she was talking about. I sure did now.
Everyone’s rooms were dark except for Sai’s. There was light under his door, and I wondered what kept him from sleep. I left the living quarters behind and followed the corridor that led to the work areas. This part of the settlement was usually buzzing with activity during the day. But in the middle of the night, the only sound was from the air scrubbers humming softly in the background like a lullaby. I passed the exercise room, Sai’s workshop, the sick bay, various workrooms, the generator room, and, my favorite, the algae farm.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House Books for Young Readers (January 5, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0593121813
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593121818
- Reading age : 9 - 11 years, from customers
- Lexile measure : 530L
- Grade level : 3 - 7
- Item Weight : 13.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.69 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #116,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #613 in Children's New Experiences Books
- #752 in Children's Science Fiction Books (Books)
- #1,099 in Children's Self-Esteem Books
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Jennifer L. Holm is the NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling children's author of THE LION OF MARS and THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH. She is the recipient of three Newbery Honors for her novels OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA, PENNY FROM HEAVEN, and TURTLE IN PARADISE and a Scott O'Dell Award for her novel FULL OF BEANS.
Jennifer collaborates with her brother, Matthew Holm, on two graphic novel series -- the Eisner Award-winning Babymouse series which has more than 3.4 million books in print (!) and the bestselling Squish series. SQUISH is now an animated tv series on HBO MAX!
For more information, visit her website at www.jenniferholm.com.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story good and realistic, with a fictional plot that takes place on Mars. They also describe the book as a fun read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story good, suspenseful, and relatable. They also say the book is fictional but still seems realistic.
"...The story kept him entranced and he constantly asked questions about details yet to be revealed in the narrative because he just couldn't wait to..." Read more
"...It is a rational, thrilling, and futuristic book...." Read more
"...I loved the storyline and how the book ended. This was fictional but still seemed realistic which I think will grab children's attention...." Read more
"...I was sad Phinneus died, but the rest was amazing. I loved the suspense. Who is Larry? What happened to Lissa? What caused the virus...." Read more
Customers find the book fun, with some sad and scary moments. They also say it's an enjoyable read.
"...The plot of the story contains ups, downs, serious and humorous parts. The character traits and attitudes of the people make them memorable...." Read more
"I don't write many reviews unless I truly like the book. This one was fun, although the algae based foods sound gross. :-)...." Read more
"...Fun with some sad and scary moments, it’s a very enjoyable read." Read more
"Fun and easy read..." Read more
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This book was an easy read for my 10 yr old grandson, who also enjoyed it immensely. The characters were real and interesting to him, although some of the historical pop fiction references meant nothing to him. The story kept him entranced and he constantly asked questions about details yet to be revealed in the narrative because he just couldn't wait to know (but no spoilers from me!). I think this book will also appeal to his 8 year old sibling - and really, anyone else who picks it up.
The main character, Bell, lives on an American settlement on Mars with other kids and adults. After a meteor crashes, the children go to explore without permission and get stranded. Soon, they are rescued and live a normal life on Mars until they find some mice. They keep one of the mice and it spreads a virus and all the adults in the settlement fall ill. For some time, the children stick it out but then, Bell goes to the French settlement and discovers things are very different than he had imagined them to be.
The book is about living in realistic circumstances on Mars and learning about the past. The plot of the story contains ups, downs, serious and humorous parts. The character traits and attitudes of the people make them memorable. Some of the most exciting parts are when the children explore the meteor crash, and they go to the other settlements for help.
All in all, I would recommend this book for people ages 9 through 13 because it is a very good and balanced book. Younger children may not understand it, or may find the vocabulary too hard. This book has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars because while it is very good, it would do better with some more excitement and action.
I loved the storyline and how the book ended. This was fictional but still seemed realistic which I think will grab children's attention.
Trigger Warnings: The adults come down with a deadly virus similar to COVID which some children might be sensitive too, grief and death is discussed, death of a pet is also discussed when the children have to kill off their pet mouse who brought in the virus