See You In The Cosmos

Goodreads Description

11-year-old Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan—named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he’ll uncover—from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly not-around brother, he has way more family than he ever knew.

My Review

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

Format: Paperback

Source: Review copy received from the publisher. Many thanks to author Jack Cheng and Penguin Random House SA for my copy.