See You in the Cosmos

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng     320 pages

11-year-old Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan—named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like. 

But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he’ll uncover—from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly not-around brother, he has way more family than he ever knew.

What a complex story! I enjoyed it immensely as an adult, but I'm not too sure how much a middle-grade reader would understand or appreciate it. It's from the perspective of an eleven year old, but the book involves themes of depression/schizophrenia, affairs, and other grown-up issues that Alex, the main character, doesn't understand fully or isn't aware of until others around him explain it to him. As a kid, reading this, it might not been very clear until these themes are explained, and, again, it's told in as child-friendly a way possible, but I'm not sure how much a kid reading this would enjoy these parts of the book.

I enjoyed this book and I would give it to kids who are on a higher reading level and are also mature for their age. I just think they'd get more out of it. There is a lot of life-evaluation in this book and I think a mature middle-grade reader would find that interesting. Perhaps the space and rocket themes would be the hook. I'd also recommend it to any adults I know who enjoy juvenile literature. It's a very well written story and the characters are interesting. Definitely a solid read for me (however, I did listen to the audiobook version, which I'd also recommend - it includes several narrators, which is nice, and the boy who narrates Alex is very good!)