See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng (review)

Everything is all set—eleven-year-old Alex, accompanied by his beloved if timid dog, Carl Sagan, is taking his homemade rocket to the Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival where he will shoot it and its payload, an iPod that records Alex’s reflections about his life for the aliens he hopes will be their audience, into space. Though his rocket fails at launch, Alex’s own journey takes flight: two adult would-be rocketeers take him to Las Vegas, where Alex discovers a half-sister, Terra, he never knew about, which leads to more road-tripping and the reveal of more secrets about Alex’s family. Alex is a poignant but sturdy figure, and while his narration suggests he may be on the autism spectrum, the book wisely focuses instead on his sequence of quests and his relationships with the people who help him; his growing bond with nineteen-year-old Terra is the heartwarming standout of his emotional journey. The book strains credulity to the breaking point, however, in removing the obstacles to Alex’s journey time and time again and in giving him a hugely neglectful home life (his single mother proves to have schizophrenia) that has completely escaped intervention. In addition, there are just too many plot elements in play, so that some, such as Alex’s (temporary) loss of his beloved dog, simply don’t have room to land, and Alex’s narration is at times dauntingly torrential. A kid on the loose being helped by benevolent adults is still an enticing premise, however, and youngsters with rocketry and independence dreams of their own may want to follow Alex.