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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Ha sido muy interesante seguir a Alex en esta aventura y a veces he sentido que me hablaba a mí, que quizás este libro era las grabaciones transcritas de un niño de 11 años que vive en otro planeta muy parecido al mío. Sé que no suena nada creíble pero este libro me ha hecho pensar que hay infinitas cosas que aún no conozco y que aquellas cosas que percibo como imposibles pueden no serlo después de todo y que cada persona es un mundo, una estrella, a la que le pasan infinitas cosas en su día a día, que sólo tenemos una vida y hay que vivirla al máximo.
No es uno de mis libros favoritos pero no puedo decir con certeza qué es lo que no me ha gustado, a veces me perdía en la lectura y dejaba de leerlo en algunos momentos pero es una historia muy interesante que me hizo reflexionar sobre mi vida en varias ocasiones.
No es uno de mis libros favoritos pero no puedo decir con certeza qué es lo que no me ha gustado, a veces me perdía en la lectura y dejaba de leerlo en algunos momentos pero es una historia muy interesante que me hizo reflexionar sobre mi vida en varias ocasiones.
Edit in 2020:
audiobook: 5 start
story: 3 start
I never stopped to think about why I loved the book so much.
And I will say that the audiobook was very perfect, that being one of the primary reasons I loved it.
The execution was good too, a person putting recordings. You can see his innocence in the words,
but it lacked the story after a while. maybe 50 percent. I don't remember, but it left the fun. The teenage problems came, which were not at all required in this book.
It could end up as a way better one.
At least that's what I believe.
a small quote(oh there are some nice quotes too in the story btw :) )
"I usually come up here at night so that way I’m closer to the stars, even though it’s only one story closer."
audiobook: 5 start
story: 3 start
I never stopped to think about why I loved the book so much.
And I will say that the audiobook was very perfect, that being one of the primary reasons I loved it.
The execution was good too, a person putting recordings. You can see his innocence in the words,
but it lacked the story after a while. maybe 50 percent. I don't remember, but it left the fun. The teenage problems came, which were not at all required in this book.
It could end up as a way better one.
At least that's what I believe.
a small quote(oh there are some nice quotes too in the story btw :) )
"I usually come up here at night so that way I’m closer to the stars, even though it’s only one story closer."
When I saw this book in the bookstore, I just had to buy it! The story seemed so cute and the cover is so pretty! This was definitely an impulse buy.
The main character is Alex, who is only 11 years old. He wants to build a rocket to send audio recordings on his golden ipod into space to let the extraterrestrial creatures know what life is like on earth. Throughout his journey, he learns so much about himself and the world.
I’ve read this book a few years ago so I don’t really remember the details, but I do remember it was really adorable! Jack Cheng did a great job writing from a kid’s perspective. Every chapter is an audio recording, so we ‘hear’ conversations and Alex talking and thinking to himself, but also sounds like *keys clicking* etc. This writing style was so original, I really liked it!
Alex is mostly alone, his dad is dead, his mom is troubled and leaves him alone a lot and his brother lives on the other side of the country. It broke my heart to see an eleven year old kid go through so much, with no one by his side. But! He has a dog, named after his hero Carl Sagan (who sent a golden record into space), who goes on his journeys with him. And he also makes some amazing friends along the way.
This story was so beautiful. Alex realizes he can do anything through love and help from his family and friends.
The main character is Alex, who is only 11 years old. He wants to build a rocket to send audio recordings on his golden ipod into space to let the extraterrestrial creatures know what life is like on earth. Throughout his journey, he learns so much about himself and the world.
I’ve read this book a few years ago so I don’t really remember the details, but I do remember it was really adorable! Jack Cheng did a great job writing from a kid’s perspective. Every chapter is an audio recording, so we ‘hear’ conversations and Alex talking and thinking to himself, but also sounds like *keys clicking* etc. This writing style was so original, I really liked it!
Alex is mostly alone, his dad is dead, his mom is troubled and leaves him alone a lot and his brother lives on the other side of the country. It broke my heart to see an eleven year old kid go through so much, with no one by his side. But! He has a dog, named after his hero Carl Sagan (who sent a golden record into space), who goes on his journeys with him. And he also makes some amazing friends along the way.
This story was so beautiful. Alex realizes he can do anything through love and help from his family and friends.
Alex was such a sweet kid and my god did that set off my anxiety. Luckily everyone he met was friendly, kind and happy to hand out with an 11 year old but let me tell you, the carer in my soul wanted to go all mama bear on him when he put himself in unknown danger.
All in all though this is such a sweet story about being yourself and how family and love is complicated but also that no matter your hobbies there’s always somewhere, someone who’ll love you just the way you are. I loved the message of this story and the kid who voiced him did a brilliant job in the audiobook.
All in all though this is such a sweet story about being yourself and how family and love is complicated but also that no matter your hobbies there’s always somewhere, someone who’ll love you just the way you are. I loved the message of this story and the kid who voiced him did a brilliant job in the audiobook.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
VIDEO REVIEW HERE FOR Y'ALL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sKH9Vw6bnA
*SIGH* File this one under 'disappointing reads of 2017'. I first heard about this book at a Penguin Teen event I went to in January and thought it sounded super cute so when it came out I picked it up. The story follows our eleven year-old main character who is space obsessed and wants to launch a golden ipod into space (Carl Sagan and Nasa once sent a Golden record). He ends up going on this BIIIGG journey and meeting a bunch of people and 'discovering himself' and stuff but I just didn't particularly enjoy this.
So here's a rundown of things I didn't like:
- THE FORMATTING EUGH. Okay so the entire book is told in the 'voice recordings' on his ipod so that when he sends it into space the aliens can know about his life. It's a cute concept but reading it is really frustrating and by about the 50 page mark it was driving me crazy. It read like this "so I said let's go to the shops because then we can get ice cream and Joe said that's not a good idea because it's only an hour before dinner and I said that's no fun do you guys have ice cream on your planet if you don't it's this really cold stuff that comes in all different flavours and my favourite flavour is rainbow which Mikey from school says is for girls but I don't agree." It just keeps going like that!! There's no quotation marks to indicate speech and it's just this running commentary from a young character which got really annoying especially because he repeats himself so much. I'm sure a lot of people would find it charming but I did not!
- This book used a trope that I hate... the absent family trope! Normally this is only seen in YA books so teens can go out partying and their parents never protest. In this book and 11 year old kid goes on a road trip and his mum doesn't object and his brother (who lives interstate) doesn't call to check how things are going or anything! It really bothered me especially when it turned into a longer trip I was like ??? why aren't people concerned about you? The family thing does kind of get explained near the end but it was still not great in my opinion.
- Also all the adults he met on his trip were completely cool with the fact that an UNESCORTED CHILD was wandering around. No one called the police or anything! People even helped him. I WAS SO CONFUSED! Like yeah he's mature for his age but HE IS STILL ONLY 11!!
- Mental illness (specifically schizophrenia) is introduced to the story pretty late and I felt like it was kind of just thrown in there randomly as an excuse for a character being absent in the story which I didn't like. I don't think it was handled particularly well but others might not agree so I don't know.
- The supporting characters were all pretty meh. I found them to be a little flat. I also found it to be SUPER WEIRD that these adults dropped their lives to help some random child on his quest. Like... isn't that kind of weird? Shouldn't you be more concerned about why he isn't with his family? Am I the only one that thinks this haha?
- The dog that is on the cover is missing for half of the story so THIS BOOK IS FALSE ADVERTISING!
- Finally I think Alex (the child main character) is written as WAY older than 11. There were some moments where he would say annoyingly profound things and adults would be all 'wow ur so smrt' but I'm over here like no child would ever say that so I don't know it just felt very obvious that this was an adult trying to write as a child ya feel?
As a positive though I liked that the story was about space and that the main character was so passionate about it. I enjoy characters who love being educated. Despite all my complaints about this, I was still compelled enough by the story to keep reading! I wanted to know how things would wrap-up. Although I didn't enjoy this book, a lot of people probably would so if you're interested then definitely check it out.
*SIGH* File this one under 'disappointing reads of 2017'. I first heard about this book at a Penguin Teen event I went to in January and thought it sounded super cute so when it came out I picked it up. The story follows our eleven year-old main character who is space obsessed and wants to launch a golden ipod into space (Carl Sagan and Nasa once sent a Golden record). He ends up going on this BIIIGG journey and meeting a bunch of people and 'discovering himself' and stuff but I just didn't particularly enjoy this.
So here's a rundown of things I didn't like:
- THE FORMATTING EUGH. Okay so the entire book is told in the 'voice recordings' on his ipod so that when he sends it into space the aliens can know about his life. It's a cute concept but reading it is really frustrating and by about the 50 page mark it was driving me crazy. It read like this "so I said let's go to the shops because then we can get ice cream and Joe said that's not a good idea because it's only an hour before dinner and I said that's no fun do you guys have ice cream on your planet if you don't it's this really cold stuff that comes in all different flavours and my favourite flavour is rainbow which Mikey from school says is for girls but I don't agree." It just keeps going like that!! There's no quotation marks to indicate speech and it's just this running commentary from a young character which got really annoying especially because he repeats himself so much. I'm sure a lot of people would find it charming but I did not!
- This book used a trope that I hate... the absent family trope! Normally this is only seen in YA books so teens can go out partying and their parents never protest. In this book and 11 year old kid goes on a road trip and his mum doesn't object and his brother (who lives interstate) doesn't call to check how things are going or anything! It really bothered me especially when it turned into a longer trip I was like ??? why aren't people concerned about you? The family thing does kind of get explained near the end but it was still not great in my opinion.
- Also all the adults he met on his trip were completely cool with the fact that an UNESCORTED CHILD was wandering around. No one called the police or anything! People even helped him. I WAS SO CONFUSED! Like yeah he's mature for his age but HE IS STILL ONLY 11!!
- Mental illness (specifically schizophrenia) is introduced to the story pretty late and I felt like it was kind of just thrown in there randomly as an excuse for a character being absent in the story which I didn't like. I don't think it was handled particularly well but others might not agree so I don't know.
- The supporting characters were all pretty meh. I found them to be a little flat. I also found it to be SUPER WEIRD that these adults dropped their lives to help some random child on his quest. Like... isn't that kind of weird? Shouldn't you be more concerned about why he isn't with his family? Am I the only one that thinks this haha?
- The dog that is on the cover is missing for half of the story so THIS BOOK IS FALSE ADVERTISING!
- Finally I think Alex (the child main character) is written as WAY older than 11. There were some moments where he would say annoyingly profound things and adults would be all 'wow ur so smrt' but I'm over here like no child would ever say that so I don't know it just felt very obvious that this was an adult trying to write as a child ya feel?
As a positive though I liked that the story was about space and that the main character was so passionate about it. I enjoy characters who love being educated. Despite all my complaints about this, I was still compelled enough by the story to keep reading! I wanted to know how things would wrap-up. Although I didn't enjoy this book, a lot of people probably would so if you're interested then definitely check it out.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes