Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays: Your Favorite Authors Take A Stab at the Dreaded Essay Assignment

We needed this in our English/Literature program this year. I wasn't sure about it, I thought it would be a waste of money and my youngest homeschooler wouldn't read it. He absolutely loves this book and is enjoying it. There was one story so far that he didn't care for (french kissing), haha. We skipped that part and moved on. Other than that, it's been great. I would recommend this book along with Painless Grammar and The Norton Sampler: Short Essays For Composition. The three work together well.

Great stories with sample questions. Great to break away from standard short stories everyone teaches!

My son loved this ! A very interesting and unique way of getting kids wheels turning regarding writing , using prompts and example answers/essays

"Breakfast on Mars" is a fantastic compilation of entertaining essays for children. As a teacher, it is challenging to make essay writing interesting for students. However, "Breakfast on Mars" has made essay reading not only bearable, but actually enjoyable. The humorous, heartfelt, relatable works of the authors in "Breakfast" have given new perspective to essay writing - no more drab, formulaic, five-paragraph essays. My students have learned that essay writing can be creative and fun. (By the way, I'm enjoying my lessons more, too.)

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 or mentor text 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!