Racing the Moon (review)

Alex mostly hangs around with her older brother, Chuck, who shares her interest in the electronics and rocketry that are all the rage after the close of World War II. A chance encounter with a new neighbor, Captain Ebbs, is a masterstroke of luck for eleven-year-old Alex. Not only is the woman fascinating in her own right—she's an Army officer who helped solve the problem of feeding masses of impoverished Europeans at war's end—but she's also connected to none other than Wernher von Braun, the idol Chuck longs to meet. Chuck is one complicated guy—he's a technical-school dropout with reading disabilities, with an astonishing talent for tinkering in electronics and a stubborn daredevil streak that's a true peril to himself and his sister. Captain Ebbs recognizes Chuck's abilities and tries to give him support and direction, but his resistance to playing by her rules leads him to steal a boat with Alex and break into a government-restricted launch site to watch the liftoff of one of von Braun's rockets. Historical figures Ebbs and von Braun do not interact convincingly with the fictional siblings, and it's a stretch to accept that even the most tenacious do-gooder (to say nothing of understanding parents) would put up for long with Chuck's intransigence—much less reward it with tutoring, a job, and flight lessons—or that Chuck would ultimately drop his bad habits and suicidal thoughts in the course of single day. Alex, ostensibly the focal character of the novel, gets lost in the shuffle, and her activities don't carry the intrinsic interest of Ebbs and Chuck, whose backstories would be worth knowing. An author's note does not offer any substantial background on the real-life characters; final illustrations not seen.