Book excerpt: Ted took a big deep breath then fired up the engines. The rocket's boosters rumbled into action like a hungry bear belly. "No adventure can start without a countdown " shouted Ted over the roar of the engines. 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . BEAR BLAST OFF In this richly illustrated book, astronomer Elizabeth Avery takes children and their parents on an educational and exciting journey through space. In these captivating pages, a bear named Ted takes off for a trip through the solar system with his best friend--a flower named, aptly, Fleur. The pair explore our moon, and from there they head out to places no being from Earth has yet visited: our neighboring planets Mars and Venus, more distant locales like Jupiter and Saturn, and even the source of all Earth's energy, the Sun. At each stop in this winning adventure, the pair learns basic scientific facts that are presented at a level that early readers can grasp. The result is a trip that is simultaneously instructive and entertaining, an interplanetary romp that will inspire kids to follow their scientific dreams.