Jack Cheng’s compelling debut is a clever twist on our current fascination with setting ‘stuff’ in space.
Alex Petroski is an 11-year-old would-be rocket scientist from Colorado, who leaves behind his seemingly idle mum to attend a rocket convention in the New Mexico wilderness, with his dog Carl Sagan (named after the astronomer).
He’s soon on an impromptu road trip that takes him to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
In the true tradition of the bildungsroman, Alex’s journey is much more than physical and largely shaped by the people he meets along the way, from Buddhist Zed, who’s taken a vow of silence, and his entrepreneurial friend Steve, to 19-year-old waitress Terra, who may or may not be his half-sister.
All the while, Alex records his adventures and encounters in a series of ‘new recordings’ for extra-terrestrials on his iPod, which he’s desperate to send into space.
It’s no coincidence the book is from the same publishers who brought us The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time – and Alex is every bit as particular and endearing as Christopher.
It’s not flawless – Alex has to fill us in on plot in the recordings, while simultaneously having conversations, which doesn’t always work, and there are passages that could have been shortened, but Cheng boldly tackles the big questions of who we are and why we’re here, making it the sort of book you’ll want to pinch from your children.
Quite possibly a modern classic.
