Singing The Dogstar Blues - Softcover

Goodman, Alison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007144024 ISBN 13: 9780007144020

Publisher: HARPER COLL CHILDREN, 2003

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Joss is a rebel and a student of time travel. This year, an alien student, Mavkel, from the planet Choria, has chosen Joss as his study partner. Can this very different pair manage to live together--even learn from each other?

About this title

About the Author:

Alison Goodman was born in Australia and lives in Melbourne. She has a degree in professional writing and has published short stories in anthologies and journals, including ‘One Last Zoom at the Buzz Bar’ which appeared in The Patternmaker and was the inspiration for Singing The Dogstar Blues. Her second novel, Killing The Rabbit, is a crime thriller for adults and will be published in Australia in 2003. She is currently working on her third novel, a fantasy adventure for teens.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8 Up-This highly entertaining Australian novel is an unusual mixture of genres: time travel, comedic mystery thriller, and realistic portrayal of familial and alien relationships. Surprisingly, it works extremely well entirely due to the fact that the main character is so perfectly drawn. Joss Aaronson, 18, is an independent, spirited, and feisty young woman with a sarcastic mouth. She rarely sees her mother, a famous newscaster. Joss was conceived via a gene donor: "Straight from the petri dish to you." She's been expelled from several boarding schools and is close to expulsion from a prestigious university program in time-travel studies. For the first time, an alien from another planet has been admitted, and Joss is his study partner and roommate. A wicked harmonica player, she is intrigued that Mavkel's species communicates by harmonizing through song. His twin has died and he will, too, if he doesn't find someone with whom to join minds. He chooses Joss, although to help him, she needs to find out who her father was. Thus, the partners embark on a dangerous, illegal journey back in time. The plot and characterizations are well done; the book has lots of action, witty dialogue, and pop-culture references, and sensitively portrays complicated relationships between a mother and daughter, and members of different cultures. This book is more inventive than Mary Logue's Dancing with an Alien (HarperCollins, 2000) and, unlike M. T. Anderson's Feed (Candlewick, 2002), the tone of the made-up language is meant to be funny. While easy to decipher, the language is a bit crude. This intriguing and exciting read has lots of teen appeal.
Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HARPER COLL CHILDREN
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0007144024
• ISBN 13: 9780007144020
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256