We Dream of Space

 Cash, Fitch, and Bird don't really have much in common except that they are siblings.  Cash loves basketball, but he's just OK as a player, and he's in danger of failing 7th grade again.  It's hard to find the motivation to do anything, especially after he breaks his arm and gets benched long term.  The only thing he has to look forward to is the beautiful Penny who sits beside him one of his classes.  He just wants her to notice him.

Fitch spends all his free time and quarters playing Major Havoc at the arcade.  He's always angry, and people just seem like obstacles to him most of the time.  He tries to fly below the radar so people will leave him alone, but he always has a simmering reservoir of rage just below the surface.

Bird is Fitch's twin sister, but they never really had a twin bond or any kind of bond for that matter.  The siblings live separate lives in the same house while their parents bicker and fight every time they are in the same room.  Bird is obsessed with space; she wants to be NASA's first female shuttle commander.  Her science teacher is also obsessed with space.  In fact, Ms. Salonga applied to be the teacher on the Challenger space shuttle, but Christ McAuliffe won in the end.  Even so, Bird and the rest of the 7th grade students are studying the Challenger in detail and even taking on the roles of the mission members in the weeks leading up the launch.  

Bird tries to be the glue in her fragmented family, but it seems like no one wants to be connected.  Then the unthinkable happens, and the tragedy of the Challenger shakes her to her core.  Will Bird be able to put the pieces of her life back together?

This new book by Erin Entrada Kelly is a bittersweet tale about a family under the pressure of everyday life.  They may live under the same roof, but they are not really functioning as a unit with the parents unaware of the impact their fighting has on their children.  Kelly also weaves the tale of the Challenger disaster deftly into the story capturing the excitement and the heartbreak.  I was one of many kids all over the country who felt we had a particular stake in Challenger because there was a teacher on board.  Highly recommended.