Clues to the Universe: A Story about Rockets, Comics, Unlikely Friendship, and Life's Big Questions for Kids (Ages 8-12) - Hardcover

Li, Christina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0063008882 ISBN 13: 9780063008885

Publisher: Quill Tree Books, 2021

Synopsis

This stellar debut by APALA Award–winning author Christina Li about losing and finding family, forging unlikely friendships, and searching for answers to big questions will resonate with fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead.

The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him. When he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together.

Benjamin Burns doesn’t like science, but he can’t get enough of Spacebound, a popular comic book series. When he finds a sketch that suggests that his dad created the comics, he’s thrilled. Too bad his dad walked out years ago, and Benji has no way to contact him.

Though Ro and Benji were only supposed to be science class partners, the pair become unlikely friends, and Ro even figures out a way to reunite Benji and his dad. But Benji hesitates, which infuriates Ro. Doesn’t he realize how much Ro wishes she could be in his place?

As the two face bullying, grief, and their own differences, Benji and Ro try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.

A Washington Post KidsPost Summer Book Club selection * A Junior Library Guild Selection * A Bank Street Best Book of the Year

About this title

About the Author

Christina Li is the author of the middle grade novels Clues to the Universe and Ruby Lost and Found, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children's Literature, as well as the forthcoming teen novel True Love and Other Impossible Odds. At any given time she is probably daydreaming about characters and drinking too much jasmine green tea. She grew up in the Midwest and California but now calls New York home. Find her online at christinaliwrites.com.

Reviews

Gr 4-7-Twelve-year-olds Ro and Benji are both having a rough start to the school year. Ro's father recently died, and her mother can no longer afford her private school tuition. Transferring to a school where she knows no one proves difficult, and overhearing conversations of students trying to guess her biracial ethnicity (she is white and Chinese) is painful. Benji, who is white, is lonely and aimless because his best friend, Amir, moved across the country. When Ro and Benji begin working on a science fair project together, an unlikely friendship is formed. While the two are very different in terms of personality and interests, they bond over the shared experience of not having a father. The combination of Ro's aptitude for science and logic and Benji's artistic talents and laid-back personality results in a good team. Soon the two are working on more than a science fair project. They are helping each other fulfill a dream that will bring them closer to their absent fathers-building the rocket Ro and her dad were going to work on together and tracking down Benji's comic book creator father. Since the story is set in the 1980s, before use of the internet was widespread, finding Benji's father is no easy task. The novel feels contemporary, so the setting may be somewhat confusing for readers who don't understand the technological limitations. Ro and Benji alternate narration, which helps the reader see their evolving perspectives of each other and provides a mechanism for telling their backstories. The book would have benefited from a stronger distinction between the two voices, though a heading at the beginning of each chapter indicates which character is speaking. It is refreshing to see a strong friendship between female and male characters depicted in a middle grade novel; it's the authenticity of this relationship that drives the heart of the story. VERDICT The message of resilience, courage, and friendship will resonate widely with young readers. Themes touched on include grief, fears, bullying, and identity, making the work highly discussable and a good candidate for classroom use.-Juliet Morefield, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, ORα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quill Tree Books
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0063008882
• ISBN 13: 9780063008885
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304