This award winning book (Children's Book Award) for children is creepy, somewhat scary, and totally addicting.
The characters, Poppy, Alice, and Zach have been friends since first grade. They are now on that brink of change - middle school. They have been involved in an imaginary game involving dolls and action figures when Zach's dad throws his characters away. Zach can't deal with this action on the part of his father, but he can't tell his friends. It causes a lot of conflict in the story. The reality story is a journey that they go on to bury an antique doll and this quest involves quite a bit of risk. It is disturbing on many levels. Is the doll really communicating? What dangers are they meeting on the journey? Will they run out of money? Will it break their friendship?
It was riveting to find out what would happen next, but as an adult, I had a lot of difficulty with the things they did like run away on a bus with very little money and no idea about what sort of crazies are out there. I didn't like it to the point that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than 10. I think that they made one poor and dangerous decision after another and the fact that the doll gets buried instead of one of them truly shows that it is fiction. It could definitely be worthy of discussion if kids read this book.
Yes, this book is by the daughter of Stephen Hawking. It is the first in a series of books about George, his friend Annie, her father Eric, and Cosmos, the most powerful computer in the world. The story is realistic fantasy as they will travel through space through the computer's portal. This allows the reader to learn facts and concepts about space and physics. The story also includes a "bad guy" and some bullies. It's slightly reminiscent of Harry Potter even though it's totally different. The illustrations really struck me as the first illustration of George is a black and white pencil drawing of a slender boy with spiky hair and a small scarf around his neck. I felt deja vu and didn't know if it was a nod to Le Petit Prince or Dr. Who. (The astronaut picture on the cover made me think of Curious George)
As a bonus, this book is filled with side bars of facts about the sun, stars, planets, mass, and much more. There are also full color photos of planets, nebulas, and galaxies. Any kid who loves facts and stories will be thrilled by what they can get in this book. ....and this is only book 1. There are sequels! Science kids will love it.
