Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Booktalk version: Liam Digby looks like an adult, but when he decides to act like an adult his adventures begin. He wins a trip on a new rocket ride, and decides to masquerade as a friend's father so he can experience this once-in-a-lifetime ride. However, the ride strands them in space, heading for the moon, unsure of how they will ever get back to Earth. Filled with space exploration facts, readers will learn about space travel both as history shows it, and how it might be for one 12-year-old boy who wishes for adventure and gets more than he bargained for. Is it always best to get what you want?

Full-length version: Cosmic has been on the library's shelves for most of this year, one of the many purchases I made to satisfy my reacquired interest in science fiction, and to support the sixth grade team's inclusion of science fiction in their reading curriculum. One of our public librarians booktalked some titles when she came to talk about summer reading programs, and this was one she highlighted for our sixth graders.

The story revolves around Liam Digby from Liverpool, a twelve-year-old who looks like an adult with his above-average height and facial hair, and is also considered Gifted and Talented. Testing the limits of his appearance leads Liam to adventures, the biggest of which begins with a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-type contest. The winners of the contest are to experience the newest and most spectacular ride in the world, a rocket trip into space and back again, supposedly. Throughout the experience, the children begin to learn how to be individuals while discovering that they are not as dissimilar as they thought.

I highly recommend this story to fans of science fiction as well as other types of books. The well-balanced mix of character quirks, plot, and scientific information will appeal to readers who appreciate unique plots. The book is sprinkled with real-life facts about the history of space travel, as well as one real-life astronaut as a character, and includes a page with links to NASA resources. I found myself looking up information about the names and events mentioned while I was reading the book.

For readers who enjoy books that make you think about your place in the world, there are moments of introspection and rhetorical questions about who we are as individuals and how our view of ourselves changes as the world around us changes. Or as Liam says:

Maybe everyone's got their own special gravity that lets you go far away, really far away sometimes, but which always brings you back in the end. Because here's the thing. Gravity is variable. Sometimes you float like a feather. Sometimes you're too heavy to move. Sometimes one boy can weigh more than the whole universe. The universe goes on forever, but that doesn't make you small.

This book doesn't make you feel small, but it makes you think about yourself and your relationship to others and the world around us. I highly recommend this book for literature circles or a read-aloud, possibly for an astronomy unit. There are many issues which could be discussed, as well as facts to be learned and researched.