We Dream of Space
A Newbery Honor Award Winner
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
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Newbery Honor Book • BookPage Best Books • Chicago Public Library Best Fiction
• Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee • Horn Book Fanfare • New York Times Notable
Children’s Book • School Library Journal Best Book • Today Show Pick • An ALA
Notable Book
“A 10 out of 10 . . . Anyone interested in
science, sibling relationships, and friendships will enjoy reading We
Dream of Space.”—Time for Kids
Newbery Medalist and New
York Times–bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly transports readers to 1986
and introduces them to the unforgettable Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas in
this pitch-perfect middle grade novel about family, friendship, science, and
exploration. This acclaimed Newbery Honor Book is a great choice for readers of
Kate DiCamillo, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Rebecca Stead.
Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson
Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986,
as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger,
they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves
basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade
for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at
the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn’t
understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA’s first
female shuttle commander, but feels like she’s disappearing.
The Nelson Thomas
children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable
household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named
Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga
gives her students a project—they are separated into spacecraft crews and must
create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes
all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.
Told in three alternating
points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically
rich novel for middle grade readers.
We Dream of Space is
illustrated throughout by the author.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newbery Award winner Kelly (Hello, Universe) follows three Delaware siblings in the weeks leading up to the January 1986 launch of the Challenger. Practical, schematics-interested Bird, 12, dreams of being NASA's "first female shuttle commander." Her twin, Fitch, who battles a temper, spends his afternoons at the arcade, waiting until the last minute to head home to their quarreling, sometimes volatile parents. After Cash, the twins' brooding 13-year-old brother, fails seventh grade, winds up in his siblings' grade, and is dropped from the basketball team, he breaks his wrist and ends up in a cast. Meanwhile, their science teacher endeavors to build her students' excitement for NASA's Challenger launch and for a female teacher heading into space. But January 1986 is difficult for them all: Bird's feelings of insignificance and Cash's feelings of inadequacy grow, while Fitch is suspended for belittling a classmate in language similar to his fighting parents'. As Kelly's chapters count down to the Challenger's disastrous launch, they document a family in crisis and three untethered siblings. With painfully accurate insight and clarity, Kelly shows the incredible power of words the irreparable damage they inflict and their ability to uplift while crafting a captivating story about family's enduring bonds. Ages 8 12.
