Penguin Random House ISBN 9780141357058 £6.99
I found this book rather a trial to engage with initially. Its clipped prose and unconventional presentation of dialogue was, I felt, rather clunky and uninviting. However, for purposes of this review I ‘stuck with it’ and found myself ultimately drawn into the plight of Alex, his Golden Ipod and stray dog, Carl Sagan. While Alex wrestles with the big questions of the cosmos and how he can show other life forms what life on earth is really like, the story of Alex’s moving home life involving a long-departed father, alcoholic mother and barely there brother unfolds. Alex’s space mission takes centre-ground in his life, however, and the skilful way Chang presents this means that the reader almost forgets that this is a child with an enormously challenging set of circumstances to cope with. Alex’s belief in and devotion to his mum is incredibly moving and as the story unfolds the reader is carefully shown how a rather motley assortment of space-obsessed individuals are drawn in by Alex’s guileless charm. When one of these acquaintances thoughtlessly loses Carl Sagan the search mission that ensues is enormously convincing and I am sure I am not the only reader to breathe a massive sigh of relief when Carl eventually reappears! While this book is not the easiest to initially absorb the KS2 reader, it is certainly worth the commitment.
Laura Manison Shore, Senior Lecturer in Early Years & Primary Education, UWE, Bristol