Author Description

With the help of a magical creature named AboGado, Rashad and Angie visit planet Venus, and are given a guided tour by Venus, herself! Venus explains how to find 'her' in the sky (at morning or evening). When they climb through AboGado's portal they experience a bumpy ride on Venus' cloud cabana while she guides them to see the major features of the surface of the planet, including pancake mountains, folded tessera, gigantic craters, ocean trench-like lowlands, and continent-like highlands. She regales with stories about the Morning Star from many cultures. In Aztec legend, Venus was a twin god, good in the morning, and the evil twin at evening; in Greek legend, Venus was a goddess of love with the story of Echo & Narcissus. Finally, in a Native American legend, the Morning Star helps a young man escape from a bear. Beautiful photographs throughout the book illustrate how a person observes different phases of Venus back on Earth, from crescent shaped, to full. Other photographs include an occultation of Venus, and Venus appearing in selected constellations as part of its 'wandering' nature. When they get home, Rashad gets a nasty lesson in the chemistry of Venus' clouds. With a foreword by Tony Spear, the project manager of NASA's historic Magellan mission to Venus. A glossary to scientific and technical terms is included.