Search This Blog
April Reviews Link-Up
May Reviews Link-Up
June Reviews Link-Up
July Reviews Link-Up
August Reviews Link-Up
September Reviews Link-Up
October Reviews Link-Up
November Reviews Link-Up
December Reviews Link-Up
2024 Literary Escapes Challenge
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Debut MG Novel a Spuderrific Read
la Gordon Korman, Lincoln Peirce, and Jeff Kinney.
MG Challenger Novel a Liked-It-Didn't-Love-It Read
Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties.
Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn’t understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA’s first female shuttle commander, but feels like she’s disappearing.
The Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project—they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.
Told in three alternating points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically rich novel for middle grade readers. (Plot summary from publisher)
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly is an atmospheric novel that highlights an important historical event that I haven't seen addressed in fiction before. Kelly uses enough detail to vividly recreate the 80's for her 21st Century audience and capture the Challenger-inspired fervor that I remember well, although I was only 10 when the shuttle launched. These are the elements I enjoyed most in the novel, especially since I found it difficult to connect with the Thomas children. They all seemed cold, self-absorbed, and just not very likable. Plotwise, there's not tons going on in We Dream of Space, so it dragged a little bit for me. While I was particularly moved by Kelly's depiction of the characters' reactions in the immediate aftermath of the Challenger explosion, overall, this book was definitely a liked-it-didn't-love-it read for me. Too bad.
(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. You?)
Grade:
MG Novel-in-Verse Realistic and Relatable
Reading
Listening
Followin' with Bloglovin'
-
Bookish Quote of the Day!!1 hour ago
-
-
Daily Prompt 26 April Friday4 hours ago
-
Book Blogger Hop – TV or Book9 hours ago
-
-
-
-
Audiobook: The Mango Tree16 hours ago
-
FO Friday: SaltPixie Studio Rolags16 hours ago
-
Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose17 hours ago
-
The Lady of Larkspur Vale21 hours ago
-
Need a laugh?22 hours ago
-
-
Long Time Dead by T M Payne23 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Final Cut by Marjorie McCown2 days ago
-
-
-
-
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth3 days ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Reading as a retreat from reality1 week ago
-
Reading Recap March 20242 weeks ago
-
-
March Monthly Wrap-up3 weeks ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?6 months ago
-
6/25/23 Extra Ezra10 months ago
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
Grab my Button!
Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ▼ 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)