Singing the Dogstar Blues - Softcover

Goodman, Alison

3.69

1,182 ratings by Goodreads

9780142402467: Singing the Dogstar Blues

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014240246X ISBN 13: 9780142402467

Publisher: Firebird, 2004

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Seventeen-year-old Joss is a rebel, and a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for Neo-Historical Studies. This year, for the first time, the Centre has an alien student? Mavkel, from the planet Choria. And Mavkel has chosen Joss, of all people, as his roommate and study partner. Then Mavkel gets sick. Joss quickly realizes that his will to live is draining away. The only way she can help Mavkel is by breaking the Centre?s strictest rules . . . and that means going back in time to change history.

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About the Author:

Alison Goodman was born in Australia and after a bit of wandering, now lives in her beloved hometown, Melbourne. She was the 1999 D.J. O’Hearn Memorial Fellow at Melbourne University, holds a master of arts, and teaches creative writing at the postgraduate level.

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.

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