See You in the Cosmos

Cheng, Jack. See You in the Cosmos. 2017. 316p. ISBN 978-0-399-18637-0. Available at FIC CHE on the library shelves.

Alex Petroski is fascinated by space. He loves stars and rockets, and his an active participant on Rocketforum.org, where he knows all of the other participants. He loves his dog, named after the famed astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan. He loves his older brother, who works in Los Angeles as a sports agent, and his mother, who has good days and bad days, but mostly bad days. At eleven, Alex wants to do is to replicate Dr. Sagan’s exploit of creating a golden record containing all sort of information on Earth, then sending it to space on Voyager back in 1977. He’s built a rocket, and he plans on attending SHARF (Southwest High Altitude Rocket Festival) in New Mexico so he can fire it up in the sky, along with a golden iPod on which he has been recording his thoughts.

Accompanied by Carl Sagan, Alex leaves a bunch of ready to eat meals for his mother, who rarely comes out of her bedroom, and heads out to New Mexico on a train from his hometown in Colorado. He meets Zed, a man who has made a vow of silence and communicates with a chalkboard and who is also heading to SHARF. Since the train is late, Alex agrees to go with Zed and Steve to the festival site. There, Alex manages to fire his rocket in the C competition, but it doesn’t go very far. Steve and Zed do their best to comfort Alex, but he perks up when he discover that there is a match for his father in Las Vegas. Alex and Ronnie’s father died eight years ago, and no one really talk about him. When Alex did a family project in school, he used Ancestry.com and left some contact information if anyone else was looking around, and lo and behold there is someone with the same name, birthdate and death date a state away. Steve and Zed agree to take him to Vegas to find out more about his father. As Alex’s adventures continue, he will realize that sometimes what you are looking for is right at home.

Told through transcribed recordings, Alex has the responsibility level of a 13-year-old, as he likes to point out, but he’s also incredibly naive and talkative, often repeating himself. Though not addressed until the end, his mother’s sickness and his brother’s absence from his life overshadow everything that Alex does. The discovery of a half sister increased the size of his family, and the many contacts he makes during his trip turn into friends that help him grow and deal with his mother’s schizophrenia. Alex, who often thought he was alone, has a bigger family and way more friends than he ever thought.