Rapid Fire (Book) Review: See You In The Cosmos.

In Realm Beyond Sight's "Rapid Fire Review" I hit the good, the bad, and try to get out before the review becomes too long winded. In this new review I take a look at the young adult book See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng.

I went into this book not knowing anything about it and I must say that I was thoroughly, and happily, surprised at how amazing it was. Told through a series of written transcripts of audio recordings, this book has a unique story telling structure that allows the reader to view the world and this wonderful story through the innocent eyes of eleven year old Alex Petroski who is making the recordings so that he could send them to space on a rocket he built in order to show aliens what life is like on Earth. It took time to get used to this style of storytelling but I love how it put the reader in the view point of Alex. You saw relationships, accidents, excitement, heartbreak, and many other aspects of life through a lens of innocence that really brought the story to another level. To me, this was a shining characteristic of this novel.

Though this story has many themes (love, bravery, truth, and family), this is most definitely a story about relationships. In this case, Alex's relationships with various characters and how they drive both him and the story forward. But look closely and you'll see that the relationships with Alex change the characters around him as well. Though it may be easy to overlook, Alex's dog, Carl Sagan, is an important relationship as well. I viewed Carl Sagan as a family member to Alex. The one family member that no matter what happens is always by Alex's side. This is why the events of this story with Carl Sagan hit Alex particularly hard and teach him to be brave.

Rockets play such a large part of this story and as you continue to read you see the brilliant metaphor that they represent. Very early on you find out about Alex's love of rockets and that he is building his own to launch at a rocket festival. But look deeper and you'll see that rockets represent Alex himself. A rocket may have a rough start not reaching the heights that you'd expect (similar to what you see at SHARF) but if you double your efforts and strive to succeed then a rocket can soar to the clouds and achieve heights that you'd never imagine.

Overall, I really loved this book and feel that this may be the Newbery Award winner this year (which will be announced in 3 weeks). This is a fun story with some deep themes that I would recommend to everyone.

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