Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays by Brad Wolfe

Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays Reviews

• 
  Rachel

  If you like good writing or teach writing, open up a tab to Breakfast on Mars: Your Favorite Authors Take a Stab at the Dreaded Essay Assignment.
  
  The collection begins with a foreword from Margaret Cho, who admonishes teachers who have used writing as a form of punishment. She tells a story about how she first realized that words had power and introduces the anthology by saying that it's "a collection of essays by authors who understand that writing about ideas should be fun and real, not a drill. The authors in this book get that essays don't have to follow the same rules that someone made up forever ago."
  
  I wish I could run out and buy 30 copies of this book for my classroom. The short, focused essays are excellent models for a writing workshop. (The editors have included a related prompt for each essay, which makes the collection more accessible for teachers revising their curriculum because their state has adopted the Common Core State Standards.)
  
  EXAMPLES - WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK:
  
  1.) The opening of "Creative Boot Camp" by Joshua Mohr (186-190):
  
  Sometimes we forget to celebrate our imaginations. We take them for granted. We slack and never muster the energy to walk them. We fail to make sure they're eating quality calories. They get lazy and bored.
  Neglected, our imaginations lie on the couch, eating Doritos and wearing dirty clothes. Our imaginations spend hours on Facebook stalking our boyfriend's ex-girlfriends or our ex-girlfriend's last boyfriend or our old BFF who we now completely hate or the strange cousin we met at Aunt Martha's crab-feed in July.
  We look at our imaginations, sadly curled on the sofa, and we scream at them, "Get up!"
  
  For the record, this essay ends with the imagination and "you" walking off into the distance together as artist and best friend, which is adorable and perfect.
  
  
  2.) The close of my very favorite essay in the anthology:
  
  "The world is full of time machines. You can fight that truth. Or you can ride." (31)
  -Steve Almond in "The World is Full of Time Machines"
  
  3.) The first line of another great essay in the anthology:
  
  "I confess that I have always wanted a tail for personal reasons." (99)
  -Ned Vizzini in "Why We Need Tails"
  
  4.) An excellent argument in favor of pictures in essays and books:
  
  "...how did we get from a world where illustrations were plentiful, and where illustrators could be powerful partners in creation, to our modern-day world, where there are hardly any pictures in novels at all?" (20)
  -Scott Westerfeld in "Warning: This Essay Does Not Contain Pictures"
• 
  Reeka (BoundbyWords)

  As seen on my blog:
  
  
  
  
  Breakfast on Mars was a terrific idea for a book. It contained a little taste of genius from so many great authors: Ransom Riggs, Scott Westerfield and Ned Vizzini, to name a few. I absolutely loathed essay-writing in school, and cursed the day someone, somewhere, decided to make structured writing a thing. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment *le sigh*.
  
  I wish this book was published while I was in grade school. Breakfast on Mars was compiled of 38 essays, written like essays ought to be written like. however we chose it to be. Breakfast on Mars was a tribute of sorts, to the first generation of essays, when essays were a cool thing to be. There were personal essays, persuasive essays, literary essays and a whole array others that were cleverly written, and an absolute joy to read. 
  
  Each author was given a topic, for example "Write about a time when you had to experience pain in order to get a huge reward." For this one, author Chris Epting wrote a personal essay entitled Penguin Etiquette, that detailed, complete with pictures!, a trip to the Antarctic with his daughter to study emperor penguins. The essay comprised only 11 pages (words and photos), but Chris conveyed such poignancy and beauty onto those pages, that I felt like I read an entire novel of adventure. Which was, in essence, the point of the book. To prove that essays don't need be a drab, soul-crushing feat. They could be sounding boards for knowledge, and can be read like a novella even!
  
  I enjoyed so many of the essays in Breakfast on Mars, they were mini bursts of happiness, and I couldn't turn the page to the next one fast enough. If you get a chance, read this book, then pass it along to your children!
  
  Recommended for fans of: ALL genres. Many of us were the victims of essay-writing. Read this and think of it as your revenge on structure! I did =)
• 
  Melissa

  Breakfast on Mars is a rare breed: an anthology of essays written for a tween audience. Bay Area native and teacher, Rebecca Stern recognized the difficulty of teaching children to write something they had no experience reading and so gathered nearly forty short essays, mostly written by authors children will recognize. In their range and variety they refute the idea that essays must be serious, structured and dull and offer a multitude of examples and jumping off points to inspire both student writers and their teachers. Each essay is categorized: personal, persuasive, informative, literary or graphic. An index allows readers to search for topics or authors that particularly appeal. While the examples provide inspiration in their dramatic openings, effective use of colloquial speech and creative metaphors they also inspire with the joy the authors evince in writing. It’s On Like Donkey Kong crackles with indignation. River Girl is passionate and elegiac. The Incredibly Amazing Humpback Anglerfish, quivers with the intensity of the fact collector. While it is possible the volume may be read cover to cover it will be invaluable as an aid in middle-school essay assignments or for students writing high school applications. Three of the essays struck me as awkward, personal and too tragic for the collection: Natural Light, Death is Only a Horizon and A Thousand Truths. However, the 35 other strong contenders leave plenty of examples to speak to all types of readers and writers.
  
• 
  Chris

  In the following pages, you'll catch a glimpse of something most people have never seen in the wild. We've let essays out of their cages, and we've set them loose.
  
  This book is a great idea, a collection of essays by professional writers responding to the prompts that are commonly assigned in schools to serve as examples for students frustrated by the confines of the requirements. Whether prompted with "Write about a time you helped make the world a better place" or "Compare and contrast two characters from the same story" or "Pick a belief that is widely accepted and then debunk it" or one of the other forty topics (indexed by type; e.g. persuasive, etc.), the authors demonstrate a variety of ways to make the essays personal, creative, interesting, and meaningful. I was hooked from the Forward by Margaret Cho to the end, and, though not every selection was stellar or spoke to me, the collection as a package is excellent. Highly recommended for all classrooms where essays are assigned, students looking for a bit of inspiration, and readers who enjoy encountering a variety of interesting, engaging essays.
  
  I could have just as easily picked any number of other favorite bits, but I think I'll share this metaphor for friendship that I loved from Ransom Riggs in "Camp Dread or How to Survive a Shockingly Awful Summer":
  
  The popular kids I knew seemed to make friends effortlessly. Their cliques grew and blossomed and rotated members on a daily basis. My friend group, on the other hand, was like a rare mold that only grew beneath a certain kind of rock at a specific elevation: There wasn't much of it, it formed very slowly, and it was exceedingly stable. But if a wild mongoose came and ate a bunch of it, the mold wasn't going to grow back in any big hurry.
• 
  Emrys

  What a fabulous idea! The essay comes back with a bang, a hum, and a fantastic kind of flourish. There is a huge range but all are wonderfully composed. Funny, sad, pensive, revealing, and as delicious as a stack of pancakes. The authors here are professionals, and so of course they break all the rules. You won't find five concise paragraphs, or three citations to support each point, or the words "in conclusion" at the end of every page. Instead you'll get powerful anecdotes that span from intro to closing sentence, well-able-bodied opinions, even occasional pictures, graphs, and photographs.
  
  These are essays from the hearts and heads of people who love to write and make their living from it, people who have baby-sat penguin families, struggled with their first names and their ability to fit into jeans and people who are best friends with their imaginations. My personal favorites were just when one of these exceptional authors took an opportunity to open up to us about a little part of their seemingly mundane, ordinary life, and made it glow like a sunset on a river and shine like starlight off a spaceship halfway to Mars.
  
  And they're all only about five pages long!
  
  I read this as an ARC and elements are subject to change
• 
  Ben

  "To properly introduce this book, you need a little bit of backstory.
  Once upon a time, essays were exciting, and full of the author's exciting, new opinions. People would seek out essays and actually want to read them. Then the essay became the favorite tool of schools, and through generations the essay faded from the mass of honestly bad, blandly formulaic essays written by generations of bored schoolchildren.
  In this fun book, a bunch of contemporary writers have tried to bring a little bit of spice back to essays with 37 essays on topics that the authors really care about, like why humans should colonize Mars. The authors' different and fun styles and far-ranging topics make the book a fun and worthwhile read."
• 
  Penny Peck

  Several authors (many YA authors) contributed to this ebullient collection of essays on a wide variety of subjects, perfect for middle and high schoolers. These are great examples of the types of essays students are required to write: persuasive, personal, how-to, and literary (there is an index in the back). Experience the truth about Sasquatch, what life was like for a kid before TV, and the joy of blueberry picking. Many of these are personal reminiscences by the authors, which may lead the reader to find the books by that person. Useful to teachers who need examples of great essays, but first and foremost an entertaining read.
• 
  Christiane

  I liked the idea of this book (authors tackle dreaded essay questions like "Compare and contrast two characters from the same story" and "Write about a strong memory and what it means to you") more than I enjoyed the reality of reading it. The essay's are really uneven in quality; some are actually just not that interesting and others, while interesting, don't have much child appeal (like the lovely "Natural Light" by Sloane Crosley). In fact, a lot of the essays may appeal more to adults looking back at their childhood than children currently living it. Teachers may find a use for this book in their classrooms.
• 
  Jennifer

  The essay is my favorite form of writing so this book was made for me. Billed as a guide to help school kids (or rather, "young essayists") write better essays, I found it to be full of great writing and good things to think about even though after a major birthday this summer I think I would be called a "middle-aged essayist" :) I love the advice and encouragement it gives to not just young people but to any of us who try to write, simply through the demonstration of good writing. Very recommended.
• 
  Mary Louise Sanchez

  A creative way of showing 38 interesting short essays (persusive, personal,informative, graphic, and literary)written by favorite authors for children. Each essay starts with a prompt assigned to the author like: Analyse a character from a fairy tale; If you could steal one trait from an animal, what would it be and why?
  
  Teachers have a handy source to help teach students how a great essay looks. The index lists the titles/authors of the essays under their essay types and also lists the essay prompts.
• 
  Tanja

  I have always wanted something like this, to pull out when primary school teachers ask me whether I have persuasive (or any other type of) essay they could use as a prompt with their students. This is a brilliant collection of essays, with a super user friendly index that lists the essays by essay type as well as by prompt. And yes, I can just see how this book will get students excited about writing, just as the editors intended to!
• 
  Runa

  I really loved the idea of this book--showing kids that essays don't have to be boring. I just wish the types of essays shown here would actually be accepted by teachers. These were so good, but I bet if any one of them were turned in, they would be nitpicked for first person pronouns and informal language and breaking essay conventions, and that just makes me sad. (That said, my favorite essay by far was the one in Donkey Kong's point of view. Hilarious!)
• 
  Aimee

  This book is a classroom lifesaver. It contains essays written by authors like Wendy Mass that address prompts that students would typically encounter in middle school and high school. I have used it in my classroom and my 8th graders responded well to the essays. It's just so convenient to have well-written, engaging mentor texts when teaching the essay.
• 
  Laura

  Nice little collection of different styles of essays, on topics as varied as life before television, showering with spider or penguin etiquette. Fun to flip around in, or there's a handy index in the back to choose by essay type or essay prompt. If I was an English teacher, this is what I'd hand my students.
  
• 
  Tammy Ward

  Great collection of essays, mostly personal but there are a few informative and persuasive. Essays are perfect length for short read-alouds. I will use some for mentor text and imitating author's craft.
• 
  Stephanie Tournas

  Surprisingly fun and readable short essays from established authors. Includes persuasive, informative, literary and illustrated essays. Should be a great resource for students interested in examples to help get a feel for the variety of writing possible for this genre.
• 
  Mike Hutchinson

  Certainly a book to share with a language arts teacher and one I will push on students who claim "they don't like to write."
• 
  jmjester

  #bookday Can't wait for this to come out in paperback so we can buy class sets for school. So much to discuss in here for fledgling writers.
• 
  Betsy

  One Sentence Review: Unique and useful all at the same time (which is hardly something you can say for most books out there).
• 
  Kim Baccellia

  Since I'm now teaching my 12 year old how to write persuasive essays, this is the perfect book to show how essays don't have to be boring! So many fun alternate ways to write an essay.
• 
  Karen

  An interesting book on writing essays of all modes. Great resource for teachers to use to show students that an essay can be interesting and have the creative elements that a short story has.
• 
  Chris

  This was a great idea for a book, and it had a very impressive list of contributors. Some essays were more successful than others, but overall, very enjoyable.
• 
  Anthony

  Ah Essays, a student’s arch-enemy; the bane of their existence. The most boring of boring school assignments. Students are forever being given assignments on social/community issues like - “Many people believe that television violence has a negative effect on society because it promotes violence. Do you agree or disagree?” – or – “According to some people, elderly drivers should be required to reapply for their driving licenses because with age comes diminished vision, hearing, and reaction time. How do you feel about this issue?” While these essays serve a purpose they certainly aren’t very interesting.
  
  “Breakfast on Mars” turns the same old essay assignment on its side. Stern & Wolfe have compiled essays from 37 authors who write on fun and interesting topics such as: the existence of Sasquatch, Donkey Kong the real victim, meeting penguins in Antarctica, The quandary of the morality of puss in boots, and many more.
  
  While the essay types will always remain the same the essay prompts in this book are simple and a bit broad allowing for the greatest fun, interest, and creativity. Some examples are: “Pick a myth or an urban legend and argue why it must be true”, “Put yourself in the shoes of a villain and write an essay from his or her perspective”, or “If you could change an event in history, which one would you choose and why?”
  
  This book is a great resource for teachers and students alike. Teachers can make quick use of the Essay Type and Essay Prompt Indices in the back of the book to find prompts to assign along with good examples of that sort of essay, and students will be happy to have the essay shackles loosened. Readers in general will enjoy this book for the creativity, personal insights, and occasional laughs found within.
  
• 
  Julia

  First, this book is exactly what I studied in college – creative nonfiction. Writing personal essays and memoirs, short nonfiction pieces that are creative and original, that grab you, make you think, play around and have fun, and don’t need to have fairies in them to do it.
  
  Second, I would never have been this creative in grade school, and that’s what this book is for. Each essay is prefaced by the prompt it is responding too. The index at the back lists them by title, prompt, and type of essay (personal, persuasive, research, etc.). It’s great for teachers who want to pull things out of this book and say “See? Essays aren’t boring!”
  
  Some of them are better than others, but all anthologies are like that. To my mind, though, none of them sucked. None of them were boring. They were all uniquely weird and interesting, creative things that that one little creative kid in each class would write but no one else would buck the rules enough to try. Hopefully this book will get their little minds thinking, break them of Honors kid syndrome (as a former sufferer, I can tell you, it’s all-consuming. “Tell me exactly what you want an A to look like and I will give you exactly that and then you will give me the A.”).
• 
  Jessica

  Very fun stories, but I question the function and audience. The introduction presents this book as a set of examples an adult may provide a teen to inspire their essay-writing abilities. However, half of the essays in the book are personal memoirs - fun to read, but maybe not entirely appropriate for school assignments. The rest are kind of jokey, tongue-in-cheek take-offs of familiar essay topics.I guess the implied intent is to help young writers not hate their essay assignments, but I don't think any of these essays necessarily do a good job of proving what they are supposed to be proving. Lots of bad logic and humor, not a lot of good argumentation. They come off as parodies... in particular, adults parodying student writing. Which feels a little inappropriate.
  
  This is all my Former College Writing Tutor Self speaking.
• 
  Teresa Osgood

  This title caught my eye as I browsed the MG shelves. Essays? Do kids read essays? Well, they should read these. Each author has taken a standard, dull prompt, and written something interesting. Kids care about these topics: Sasquatch, Donkey Kong, penguins, how to be invisible . . . Some essays discuss creativity directly, but I could feel it all the way through. I read a couple of essays out loud to my kids, and they read more on their own.
  
  My only quibble with this book was its shelving. I think essay-writing is more relevant to older MG readers and the YA crowd. And the book is not really fiction. Then again, how many kids look for non-fiction about writing? If it caught my eye among the novels, maybe it will attract its intended audience, too.
• 
  Terry

  Teens will recognize this all-star collection of authors they love to read. How much of the book they read is a big question for me. Although billed as YA nonfiction, the Special Note to teachers suggests that this is more for classroom use. Reading the introduction (which is indirect voice) and the essays themselves confirm that. It is a book you would use to illustrate a specific type of writing, but not one you're likely to see a teens read of their own choice.
  
  To read our full review, go to
  the Reading Tub.
• 
  Anastasia Tuckness

  Fun book--collection of essays by various writers (some famous) in response to essay prompts such as "What was the worst summer you had?" The authors put it together for use in writing classes to show that essays don't have to be boring. I enjoyed it as a fun lunch break read since each essay stands on its own. Some essays were informative, some funny, some emotional, etc.