- Greetings from Planet Earth
Twelve-year-old Theo Perry is wild about all things astronautical, and the combination of the upcoming Voyager 2 mission and a class assignment challenging students to consider what message they would like to send beyond the galaxy should launch him into a state of bliss. The mysteries of space can't quite rival the mysteries unfolding in his own household, however, as he begins to suspect that his father, whom he's been led to believe is MIA in Vietnam, had in fact several years ago returned to the United States but not to his family. Moreover, his grandmother JeeBee, the only family member who will speak with any candor about Dad, balks at giving him the whole story and seems to be leading an enigmatic second life of her own. Kerley hooks readers into the drama by alternating chapters of third-person narration with passages in which Theo dictates an introspective tape-recorded message to an unidentified recipient (his father, we learn in the final pages). Unfortunately, the [End Page 425] family tension, rife with maternal lies and sibling rancor, is dissipated by the book's heavy-handed emphasis on the Big Life Lesson Theo learns from his space message assignment, which seems to intrude every time the action picks up momentum. Iain Lawrence's Gemini Summer (BCCB 12/06) therefore offers a more riveting portrayal of a kid with family issues and a serious space jones, but this may still appeal to readers with a taste for drama at the galactic and domestic levels.