See You in the Cosmos is in the running for YAYOMG!'s favorite book of the year. We're always here for a story about a space/science-loving kid, but See You in the Cosmos is just lightyears above the rest. This story breaks your heart and puts it back together again in such a beautiful, meaningful way.

Thanks for Netgalley and respective publishers.

"Hello guys, This is Hirdesh and I was reading SEE YOU IN THE COSMOS AND I loved it."
Books have comprised in such way of recording by the leading character.

Book was about a 11 Eleven years old boy Alex who loves 3 things-
*Doing recording.
* CARL SEGAN- his dog.
* Rocket launching- he didn't knew, but he was great leaner in that.

Easy and lovely piece of writing and loved to read it thoroughly.
It was captivating.

Alex is 11 years old, but at least 13 in responsibility years, he wants to tell aliens everything about life on Earth and records all his thoughts for them on a golden ipod. He plans to launch it into space on the rocket he has built. As he tells the story you can read the childlike wonder in everything he sees and hears.

I really enjoyed reading this as an adult, I am less sure whether this will appeal so much to adolescent readers. I feel as a slightly older reader I was better able to appreciate the journey Alex is on.
The unusual narration - audio recordings is different, yet also brilliant. The tale is an emotional one at times, but not overly sentimental. It is ultimately excepting of this earths reality. Initially I was cynical about how enjoyable reading about a boy travelling with virtual strangers would be, however once I put this aside I found the story to be thought provoking, yet also charming.

love this book <3

Alex = cute, sweet, innocent, genius, honest, intelligent, adorable, responsible.

the entire book is in form of recordings. so heartfelt & brave. we get to know about his life, his family, his friends, his passion, his dog, his road trip & so on. the entire book is so original, honest & innocent. I loved the writing style so much, totally suitable for Alex & his journey.

A heartwarming book, full of quirky, but totally believable characters. A great teen read!

Wonderful uplifting book about a young boy and his adventure in sending his rocket to another planet. Alex goes on a journey to a rocket festival and makes some friends along the way, his journey ends up taking lots of different turns and twists. It was fascinating reading them through Alex's recordings on his golden iPod. Reading a book from an 11 year old but mentally 13 year old boy meant that sometimes you had to read between the lines and Alex wasn't always told everything as his family were protecting him from some of the more serious things but it was fun trying to read between the lines.

Beautiful book centred around 11 year old Alaric who is obsessed with space and rockets, a very original book sad in parts and funny in places. I loved how he was so oblivious to his screwed up family and it made it slightly more digestible that his family life was so sad! A really lovely book and the ending was fab I didn't want it to end but when it did I enjoyed the ending!

I don't think I realised when I requested this book that it was a middle grade book, but I enjoyed it anyway. Alex is a great character, and I loved his quest to find his dad, and the fact that what he found instead was probably better. His background made my heart break a little and while I could see that Ronnie had moved so he could have his own life, I also couldn't understand how he could leave his little brother in that situation. I also really liked the structure of the book, and it did feel like I was actually listening to Alex's recordings. I'll definitey be recommending the book!

Sending messages to other realms

Alex Petroski is eleven years and eight months old (he’s very insistent that we know this!). He owns a dog named after his all-time hero, Carl Sagan. His mother lies in front of the television having “quiet days” and his brother, Ronnie, works with sports celebrities and lives in Los Angeles.

When Alex decides that he’s going to a rocket festival in Albuquerque to launch his very own homemade rocket, he tells his mother and brother but neither seems to hear or care where he and Carl Sagan are heading.

He manages to catch the train (unsupervised child may not travel alone on a train) when an older boy befriends him and says that he’s Alex’s stepbrother. En route he meets Zed and Zed’s friend, Steve, both huge rocket enthusiasts. They take Alex under their wing and look after him at the festival and a firm friendship grows between them.

The author has used Alex’s recordings on an iPad fixed to his homemade rocket that he’s taken to the rocket festival. He hopes quest is for the rocket to be blasted into space.

This is a very clever idea; young boy trying to connect to life outside the confines of earth. It should have worked well and for me as an adult, it did, but in fact, it’s been written for children.

I chose this book to read to my granddaughter but after a couple of chapters, she said “Granny this is really, really boring!” and disappeared to find another book that was not so one dimensional. I decided to finish the book but there were many time in the ensuing hours when I had to agree with her!

Books need to “talk” and be “alive”. Unfortunately, this was neither.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Initially I was not invested in this story – I skip read the page and got the gist but then the story hit and I couldn’t put the book down. I read it in less than 3 hours.
At times the story pulls at your heart strings. At other times it challenges your perceptions. There is a story underneath the story. The search for meaning and truth.
Love, truth, bravery. ‘the more I think about them the more it feels like they’re all talking about a lot of different things put together’ ‘the more I think about them and say them over, the less sense they make’
The wonder of Gaia and Terra (pun) and is there more to the universe than we can conceive us? The tesseract of life. The sound s of a boy from earth trying to be brave and trying to find the truth’

This an out of this world book about an adorable, rocket crazy boy who goes on a wild adventure with his dog. A wonderful, touching story.

Every now and then I think that most of us avid reader's need a break from our usual reads, myself included. Although I don't read many children's books, every now and then, I hear about a children's book that really grabs my attention. And so it was with this book.

I found this book difficult to rate. I needed to remind myself that in order to be fair to the book, I needed to compare apples with apples, meaning that I needed to put on my kiddie cap and read and review this book in that vein. Obviously, I couldn't compare it to the normal books that I read, as those are adult books and are written with totally different styles and language. But one thing always remains constant for me when rating and reviewing books: how much did I enjoy the book and would I recommend it to others.

I did enjoy this book but I wasn't wowed by it. I've seen it compared to the wonderful book by R.J. Palacio titled "Wonder" and for me personally, it didn't quite live up to those standards, but this is still a good read. Alex is a wonderful character. He's intelligent, confident, outspoken and has big dreams. He also comes from a slightly troubled background and although we don't know the full story behind his family history, we do learn very early on that his family background is slightly unconventional.

Alex's road trip set out in the first half of the book is definitely an adventure and we meet some lovely characters along the way, like Steve and Zed. What I did find with this story though is that it seemed to tackle some rather grown up subjects, namely around Alex's family history. For me, this meant that the story had this underlying seriousness about it and although Alex is pretty funny at times, I thought that there was perhaps not enough excitement for younger readers. At times I really battled to view this as a children's book. It just seemed like the underlying story was very grown up.

Alex is an eleven year old boy, which means that this story targets readers between the ages of 7 and 11. Mmm, as an adult I found this story enjoyable and I could appreciate the serious topics that it touches on, but I'm not sure how it will go down with younger readers. Also, young readers in South Africa specifically might find the underlying plot a tad unrealistic, in that Alex basically goes off on a road trip on his own (with no parents or guardians) and meets strangers along the way, which then become friends. Not very likely to happen in South Africa where kids can't even walk around the block on their own. Be that as it may, this is a decent read. It has some good lessons in those pages. For those of you with children or grandchildren in the relevant age group, I definitely think it could make a nice gift, especially for those children who are fascinated by science, space, rockets, NASA and that sort of thing. My advice would probably be that this story is more suited to older children and I don't think it's a story that would hold the interest of younger readers.


My Rating: * * *

Publication Date: April 2017 (South Africa)

Genre: Children's Fiction / Middle Grade

Alex Petroski is 11 years old, and has left his mum home alone in Colorado to launch his homemade rocket at Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival (SHARF) in Albuquerque. It's OK - he left her dinners, and instructions, and he may be 11 but he has a responsibility age of at least 13!

His hero is Carl Sagan (not to be confused with his dog of the same name!), who assembled the first physical messages sent into space, including the Voyager Golden Record - so Alex has a golden iPod that he is recording messages on to launch with his rocket.

This book is the transcript of his messages, and as a by-product the story of his journey not just to SHARF but of friendships, family and understanding more about his mother and also his father who died 8 years previously.

Alex is a great character, especially for a YA book - he's kind, generous, caring and really intelligent. He is sensitive and real. I thought it was a lovely book :)

I can't say that I liked this book (I think I am too old to appreciate it!) but the concept was interesting.

This was one of the best middle grade books I have read in a while. It was refreshing, a little different, and utterly endearing.

I read of a lot of comparisons to "Wonder" and others, and I can see the comparison - they are all books that are entertaining, but also have a bit more to them, something more to chew on. It is a beautiful tale of family, rockets, hope, and more rockets! It was funny, incredibly moving, and a truly great read for kids. I would recommend it in a heartbeat! And I already have! I haven't read such an original middle grade book in ages - it was brilliant!

Regret that I lost access to this book when I had to replace my broken kindle. Many thanks for the opportunity and apologies.

This was a sweet, heartwarming read. Alex is so brave and outgoing and he has such a great relationship with his dog.
I liked the format of it being in recordings and I loved Alex's can do attitude. He doesn't give up. His family life is heartbreaking but he doesn't know any different so he doesn't totally seem to see a problem.
This wasn't a perfect book, but Alex is a kid on a quest as strange as it is admirable. His love for rockets and space is a big draw for anyone who loves those things too. I just loved how open and honest Alex was. He wasn't afraid to be himself and have emotions and feelings.

A wonderful read for younger readers. Alex is only eleven, but the demands placed on him are ridiculous. In spite of this, Alex remains optimistic. Following Alex on his journey was heartbreaking, but there were real laugh out loud moments. One to recommend.

Not really my style but I can see why people are entranced by the story.