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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
I adored this book. It's aimed at children, but it's written as if Alex is recording the events through his iPod and his voice was lovely and mature for an 11 year old boy. There were times where his innocence came through and that made the story even more endearing.
From the very first page I knew this wasn't the typical space book, it reminded me a little bit of Young Sheldon, but only because it's a about a young boy who loves science. The similarities end there- also, there's a dog. Any book that has a dog is a winner in my eyes.
It's not just about his love of space, it's also about his family. There's a twist later on (after Alex discovers something about his dad through an ancestry website) which I was really worried would turn out for the worst but it didn't and really added to Alex's journey as we follow his narration through different moments in this period of his life.
I also loved the pop culture references throughout the book, it definitely gave it a real-world feel.
It's a book to read and be enjoyed. It can be enjoyed by people of every age because rockets and space travel never age.
It's a truly beautiful story.
5/5 stars.
From the very first page I knew this wasn't the typical space book, it reminded me a little bit of Young Sheldon, but only because it's a about a young boy who loves science. The similarities end there- also, there's a dog. Any book that has a dog is a winner in my eyes.
It's not just about his love of space, it's also about his family. There's a twist later on (after Alex discovers something about his dad through an ancestry website) which I was really worried would turn out for the worst but it didn't and really added to Alex's journey as we follow his narration through different moments in this period of his life.
I also loved the pop culture references throughout the book, it definitely gave it a real-world feel.
It's a book to read and be enjoyed. It can be enjoyed by people of every age because rockets and space travel never age.
It's a truly beautiful story.
5/5 stars.
When I was sent this book, I didn't really know what to expect because of it being categorised as a middle-grade novel. I haven't actually read that much middle-grade (maybe 2 or 3), so I never know what I'm going to get. See You in the Cosmos is Jack Cheng's debut middle-grade book and when I heard it was about space, I couldn't wait to start reading as - when I was younger - I used to be obsessed with all things to do with the universe!
All eleven-year-old Alex wants is to launch his iPod into space. With a series of audio recordings, he will show other lifeforms out in the cosmos what life on Earth, his Earth, is really like. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions.
Where do I come from? Who's out there? And, above all, How can I be brave?
Determined to find the answers, Alex sets out on a remarkable road trip that will turn his whole world upside down . . .
When I looked at the first page of this book, I noticed how different the format was; the chapters were the day-to-day recordings that our main character - Alex - does whilst he is going on his epic journey. And that's exactly what this book is: an epic journey. He travels from state to state, meeting new friends and finding things out about himself that he never knew.
I loved the character of Alex, he felt so raw and vulnerable because of his age, yet he had this maturity that surrounded him and a sense of humour that sometimes made me cry with laughter. Sometimes it wasn't even his sense of humour that made me laugh, it was his naivety, the fact that he was eleven and he wasn't aware of certain things. Talking about characters, there wasn't one character in this book that I didn't like. At first, I really didn't like Ronnie but as the book progressed, he underwent some fantastic character development and I loved him by the end of the book. Terra was also just fantastic. I cannot fault her one bit. All she wants to do is help out and look after everyone, she wants to love and nurture everyone around her and the way that she looks after Alex is so incredibly heart-warming.
Even though this is a middle-grade novel, the book - very subtly - has an underlying young adult theme of mental illness, loss and finding yourself among all of the haziness of life. I felt like Cheng wrote the voice of an eleven-year-old perfectly as not once, did I feel like the character was older (or younger) than he actually was. I love how he was always being kept in the dark because of his age, but he felt like he was responsible enough to be told everything. It's the exact feeling that eleven-year-olds feel in reality as well.
Towards the end of the book, we are slowly given the answers to the questions that Alex has been asking himself from the very beginning and the ending is just perfection. I cannot fault it at all.
This is a fabulous book that I urge you to read as it will not disappoint. There is brilliant writing, awesome characters and a fascinating plot that will have you keep turning the pages until you finish the book and you realise that you've been there for five hours reading and it's 3am. This is a definite binge-read.
Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
All eleven-year-old Alex wants is to launch his iPod into space. With a series of audio recordings, he will show other lifeforms out in the cosmos what life on Earth, his Earth, is really like. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions.
Where do I come from? Who's out there? And, above all, How can I be brave?
Determined to find the answers, Alex sets out on a remarkable road trip that will turn his whole world upside down . . .
When I looked at the first page of this book, I noticed how different the format was; the chapters were the day-to-day recordings that our main character - Alex - does whilst he is going on his epic journey. And that's exactly what this book is: an epic journey. He travels from state to state, meeting new friends and finding things out about himself that he never knew.
I loved the character of Alex, he felt so raw and vulnerable because of his age, yet he had this maturity that surrounded him and a sense of humour that sometimes made me cry with laughter. Sometimes it wasn't even his sense of humour that made me laugh, it was his naivety, the fact that he was eleven and he wasn't aware of certain things. Talking about characters, there wasn't one character in this book that I didn't like. At first, I really didn't like Ronnie but as the book progressed, he underwent some fantastic character development and I loved him by the end of the book. Terra was also just fantastic. I cannot fault her one bit. All she wants to do is help out and look after everyone, she wants to love and nurture everyone around her and the way that she looks after Alex is so incredibly heart-warming.
"Sometimes the clouds inside my head get big and gray and swirly and then I hurricane through my eyes."
- Jack Cheng, See You in the Cosmos
Even though this is a middle-grade novel, the book - very subtly - has an underlying young adult theme of mental illness, loss and finding yourself among all of the haziness of life. I felt like Cheng wrote the voice of an eleven-year-old perfectly as not once, did I feel like the character was older (or younger) than he actually was. I love how he was always being kept in the dark because of his age, but he felt like he was responsible enough to be told everything. It's the exact feeling that eleven-year-olds feel in reality as well.
Towards the end of the book, we are slowly given the answers to the questions that Alex has been asking himself from the very beginning and the ending is just perfection. I cannot fault it at all.
This is a fabulous book that I urge you to read as it will not disappoint. There is brilliant writing, awesome characters and a fascinating plot that will have you keep turning the pages until you finish the book and you realise that you've been there for five hours reading and it's 3am. This is a definite binge-read.
Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Uporedjuju ga sa knjigom"Cudo".
Smem li da kazem da mi se dopalo vise od "Cuda"? Zasto ne bih smela, lol.
Divno, duhovito, toplo. Opipljiv je svet malog Aleksa, i ideja i njegovo putovanje je prilicno originalno.
Brzo se cita, dosta se uziva, jos vise se smeje.
Naci cu i audio verziju jer, uzimajuci u obzir da se knjiga sastoji od snimaka s Aleksovog ajpoda, ovo je bila izvanredna prilika da se napravi perfektna audio verzija, sa svim dodatnim zvucima koji su i u knjizi opisani.
A da, i njegov pas. Ljudi moji, njegov pas...
Smem li da kazem da mi se dopalo vise od "Cuda"? Zasto ne bih smela, lol.
Divno, duhovito, toplo. Opipljiv je svet malog Aleksa, i ideja i njegovo putovanje je prilicno originalno.
Brzo se cita, dosta se uziva, jos vise se smeje.
Naci cu i audio verziju jer, uzimajuci u obzir da se knjiga sastoji od snimaka s Aleksovog ajpoda, ovo je bila izvanredna prilika da se napravi perfektna audio verzija, sa svim dodatnim zvucima koji su i u knjizi opisani.
A da, i njegov pas. Ljudi moji, njegov pas...
My final book of this year and this decade! This audiobook was absolutely perfect - narrated with a cast and the main character was the voice of a young boy as the narrator, who was fantastic. The audio version really captured the format of this story since it was told through vice recordings on an iPod. Even though this is middle grade, it covered some heavy topics and isn’t for all middle grade readers. What a gem.
This one took some time to get where it was going, but the place it ended up was really very lovely. As it's an epistolary novel that uses audio recordings, I often wished I were hearing the recordings themselves, rather than reading the transcripts - not as an audiobook, but as a full production. Someone option the podcast adaptation!
Quirky rocket loving boy and his dog set out for a rocket competition in the desert on their own, making friends along the way. Alex's voice comes through very well as these are supposed to be recordings he is making on his "golden ipod" to send to space, just like his icon Carl Sagan (not to be confused with Carl Sagan, his dog). I wonder how this would be on audio--in text form, there were a lot of words and run-on sentences which really give you a sense of Alex but can also make it hard to absorb what is happening at times. There are no easy answers at the for Alex's family which I thought was true to life.
After having this recommended to me by several people since it came out, I finally picked it up this month and I wasn’t disappointed. This book tells the story of 12-year-old Alex, a young boy whose main life ambition is to send a rocket to space, as he goes on a road trip to find his missing dad and ends up finding a whole lot more than that. Even though I found the writing style of Alex`s recordings for aliens difficult to get into at first, I absolutely loved it by the end as it was so immersive. I also adored the characters of this book as even minor characters who only appeared in a few scenes felt fleshed out and developed, but my favourite had to be main character Alex, who is one of the most endearing and loveable protagonists I`ve ever had the pleasure of spending a book with. I cried more than once while reading this book as Alex felt so real and so special, and I desperately wanted to climb in and give him a hug on more than one occasion. Finally, I really liked that this was a road trip book, as I don’t recall ever reading this in middle grade before, and if I have I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as I did this. In short, this was a unique, special book that I`d highly recommend to fans of books such as Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg-Sloan. 4/5
(This book review is also on my blog.)
After reading King of Scars, I was in some sort of hangover. I didn't know what to read next, I had no motivation to read another book (it is frustrating!). I knew I needed something contemporary, something light as I've binge read so much fantasy novels this month. Fortunately, See You in the Cosmos is exactly what I needed to refresh my reading mood and my senses! It was beautiful, touching, fun, and downright wonderful.
The writing
The writing style of this book is really refreshing! It was light, it was funny, and so, so innocent. I also liked the fact that the story was written differently. It was written as if they were the transcriptions of Alex's recordings on his Golden iPod. That was really unique, and I kept thinking about how the audiobook version must be superb.
Furthermore, the writing style really captures the innocent point of view of such a magnificent child towards the complicated, adult world. It was so simple, yet so moving. The author took us to a journey of making friends, finding family, discovering love, and growing up. The story was just so incredibly human.
The characters
Alex is such a sweet, intelligent, and honest child. Reading the story through his point of view, his recordings, is such a blessing. This kid just has so much innocence, brilliance, and compassion in him that he changes the people around him, affects them for the better. I loved him as the protagonist. I would have liked more representation though. Alex and his brother is half-Filipino, and I would have loved if there were more details and more background about it. (Filipinos represent! )
Zed was really cool, and I knew from the start that his story has more to it. And at the end, it was really nice seeing his character development!
Terra was also a good character for me. It was so nice witnessing her journey, and how much Alex affected her life.
Steve was really annoying to be honest, but I'm glad that he manned up at the end, and started to act more like a responsible adult.
And of course, my favorite character here is the dog, Carl Sagan. Bless him.
The plot
The plot was simple enough to follow, and yet so many things happened. First there was the SHARF, then Las Vegas, then LA, then back home. They went to a lot of places, met a lot of new people, but despite that, I loved how the plot was centered in family. I loved how it progressed, and I certainly loved how all the questions and the conflicts got resolved.
And there you go, 5 stars for this wonderfully-written book! I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. In the end, I'm so glad I read this!
After reading King of Scars, I was in some sort of hangover. I didn't know what to read next, I had no motivation to read another book (it is frustrating!). I knew I needed something contemporary, something light as I've binge read so much fantasy novels this month. Fortunately, See You in the Cosmos is exactly what I needed to refresh my reading mood and my senses! It was beautiful, touching, fun, and downright wonderful.
The writing
The writing style of this book is really refreshing! It was light, it was funny, and so, so innocent. I also liked the fact that the story was written differently. It was written as if they were the transcriptions of Alex's recordings on his Golden iPod. That was really unique, and I kept thinking about how the audiobook version must be superb.
Furthermore, the writing style really captures the innocent point of view of such a magnificent child towards the complicated, adult world. It was so simple, yet so moving. The author took us to a journey of making friends, finding family, discovering love, and growing up. The story was just so incredibly human.
The characters
Alex is such a sweet, intelligent, and honest child. Reading the story through his point of view, his recordings, is such a blessing. This kid just has so much innocence, brilliance, and compassion in him that he changes the people around him, affects them for the better. I loved him as the protagonist. I would have liked more representation though. Alex and his brother is half-Filipino, and I would have loved if there were more details and more background about it. (Filipinos represent! )
Zed was really cool, and I knew from the start that his story has more to it. And at the end, it was really nice seeing his character development!
Terra was also a good character for me. It was so nice witnessing her journey, and how much Alex affected her life.
Steve was really annoying to be honest, but I'm glad that he manned up at the end, and started to act more like a responsible adult.
And of course, my favorite character here is the dog, Carl Sagan. Bless him.
The plot
The plot was simple enough to follow, and yet so many things happened. First there was the SHARF, then Las Vegas, then LA, then back home. They went to a lot of places, met a lot of new people, but despite that, I loved how the plot was centered in family. I loved how it progressed, and I certainly loved how all the questions and the conflicts got resolved.
And there you go, 5 stars for this wonderfully-written book! I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. In the end, I'm so glad I read this!
Alex is 11 years old, but at least 13 in responsibility years, he wants to tell aliens everything about life on Earth and records all his thoughts for them on a golden ipod. He plans to launch it into space on the rocket he has built. As he tells the story you can read the childlike wonder in everything he sees and hears.