Get ready to go on an adventure with the most brave boy you could possibly ever meet. Alex has a deceased dad he never knew, a 24- year old brother working in LA, a careless mom, and he is 11 years old living in Rockview, Colorado with his dog Carl Sagan. As a rocket scientist enthusiast, Alex is drawn to go a rocket convention to launch his Golden iPod like Carl Sagan launched the Golden Record. Taking his dog with him, he ventures to Albuquerque, New Mexico to the convention by train. He makes more and more friends every single day. Unexpectedly, Alex goes on an adventure that takes him back to his roots, teaches him about the grown-up world, and puts him through a difficult experience that I doubt any 11 year old could ever face. This will be one of the best books of 2017. The book deserves the glory of 5-stars.
See You in the Cosmos
By Jack Cheng
| Interest Level | Reading Level | Reading A-Z | ATOS | Word Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grades 4 - 8 | Grade 6 | n/a | 5.4 | 64551 |
A space-obsessed boy and his dog, Carl Sagan, take a journey toward family, love, hope, and awe in this funny and moving novel for fans of Counting by 7s, Walk Two Moons, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
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.
Jack Cheng’s debut is full of joy, optimism, determination, and unbelievable heart. To read the first page is to fall in love with Alex and his view of our big, beautiful, complicated world. To read the last is to know he and his story will stay with you a long, long time.
"Stellar." —Entertainment Weekly
“Life-embracing.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Irresistible.” —The Chicago Tribune
“The best I've read in a long, long time.” —Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of Counting by 7s
“Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.” —Kirkus, starred review
“A propulsive stream-of-conscious dive.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A gift—a miracle.” —Paul Griffin, author When Friendship Followed Me Home
“Exuberant.” —Booklist
"Full of the real kind of magic." —Ally Condie, author of Matched
“Incredible.” —BookRiot
"Full of innocence and unwavering optimism." —SLC
"Inspiring." —Time for Kids
“Powerfully affirms our human capacity for grace and love and understanding.” —Gary D. Schmidt, author of Okay for Now
Book Reviews (35)
want to read soooo bad
Alex Petroski comes from a broken family. His father died when he was little, his business-man older brother lives in L.A., and his mother doesn’t care what he does as long as he fixes her lunch. Alex is fine with the way things are as long as he can pursue his love of space and rockets with his best non-human friend Carl Sagan(his dog he named after his hero.) Since Alex is allowed to do what he wants, he travels with Carl Sagan to SHARF, which is one of the largest space-lovers gathering. At SHARF Alex plans on launching his rocket with his Golden iPod inside, on which he has recorded various sounds on Earth as well as a verbal journal, to show other lifeforms the daily routines of Earth. But before he knows it, his trip has turned a lot more personal than he expected, when he finds out on Ancestery.com that a man with his dad’s name and birthday lives in a city nearby. So he decided to go discover the truth. All the while he records his journey on his iPod This was an emotional and heartwarming story about finding yourself and the belonging of family. I love the life lessons woven in within, including friendship and about not giving up, and dealing with failure. I would recommend this book to ages 10 and up. There are some parts that may be questionable for younger readers, so it may be best if the parent reads the book before the kid to approve. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Alex Petroski is eleven years old, and he wants to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan the astronomer launched the Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. So, Alex is recording EVERYTHING, this book is actually a recording. Alex is a curious kid, and he loves everything about space, from rockets to the stars. He has a dog named Carl Sagan (named after the astronomer) as well. Alex's father is dead, his mother isn't very responsible, and his older brother works out of the state in LA. So, when the Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival comes around, Alex packs his duffel, grabs the rocket he's been working on, cooks his mom some meals for while he's gone, and hops on a train. On the train, Alex meets Zed, a guy who has a "Vow Of Silence," so he writes on a chalkboard to talk. Once at the launch site, when it is finally Alex's turn to launch his rocket, it doesn't go very high, and then it plummets to the ground. Alex learns that just because his rocket fell the first time, doesn't mean that he failed for life, he will have another chance. Then, after the launch, Alex learns that a house under his dad's name is in Las Vegas, and that supposedly there was more to Alex's dad's life than he knew. In this amazing book Alex learns that he has more people who care about him than he ever realized. This book pulls you in, and I literally couldn't stop reading it! Alex is funny, curious, thoughtful, caring, and optimistic. This book shows how strong a friendship is, and how important it is to have caring friends. This book is for late elementary and middle school kids. I rate it 5 stars! I hope you like this book as much as I did!
What do you get when you put together a boy, dog, rocket, and spray painted gold ipod? An amazing story about growing up and finding the truth. Eleven year old Alex really loves space, his dog Carl Sagan named after the real Carl Sagan his hero, his mom and his older brother Ronnie. All Alex really want to do is send his spray painted golden ipod with recordings of his life into space so that the aliens can know what life is really like on earth just like the human Carl Sagan did....well he did it with a record, but because who knows if aliens still have record players Alex is going to do it with his ipod. I really liked this story. I liked how the author wrote it as if you were listening to the recordings instead of just reading it out of a book. This book was so good it almost made me cry. I recommend it to anyone who likes real life stories, books that make you think or cry. All in all I really loved this book.