Taking Off

November 22, 2010
It is 1986 and Annie, a timid high school senior, lives in Clear Lake, Tex., where astronauts are training for the next flight of the Challenger space shuttle. Annie's possessive boyfriend wants to get married after they graduate; her mother wants her to go to college; and Annie, whose secret dream is to be a poet, is paralyzed with indecision. Through Annie's best friend Lea, the daughter of NASA parents, Annie meets Christa McAuliffe, the first participant in the Teacher in Space Project. McAuliffe inspires Annie to start making her own choices, the first being a road trip to see the Challenger launch with her father and his young, handsome co-worker, who soon has Annie rethinking her current relationship. Motivated by McAuliffe's bravery, Annie pushes past her fears to take her future into her own hands. Moss (Shadow), a former NASA employee who helped train crew members for this Challenger mission, makes McAuliffe perhaps too idealized a figure, but teens should relate to indecisive Annie, and Moss's depiction of the effect of the shuttle's destruction on Annie hits hard. Ages 12–up.

November 15, 2010

Living in Clear Lake, Texas, home of Johnson Space Center, in 1985, high-school senior Annie, the granddaughter of Winnie from Winnie's War (2009), secretly writes poetry in a town filled with scientists. With her single mother encouraging her to go to college and her longtime boyfriend hoping she'll settle down with him, everyone has a plan for Annie—except Annie. Then she meets Christa McAuliffe, training at J.S.C., and decides that she must watch this self-assured teachernaut achieve her dreams. After a sorrowful yet enlightening road trip, accompanied by her single dad and—unexpectedly—his young co-worker, to watch the Challenger launch, Annie discovers that she must see her own dreams take wings. Moss, a former NASA engineer who trained some of the Challenger crew, marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster with this tender tribute to McAuliffe and her continuing inspiring impact on the youth of America. While depicting the feel of the mid-'80s—jean jackets and shoulder pads galore—she also beautifully portrays the timeless teen quest for identity. (author's note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. YA)

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011

Gr 8-11-Annie is lost. It is 1985, her senior year, and she has no idea what will come after graduation: college, a job in her Texas town, marriage to her longtime boyfriend, maybe revealing to the world that she desperately wants to be a poet. All of these are possible, but Annie just cannot decide among them. A chance encounter with Christa McAuliffe (Annie's best friend's parents work for NASA) motivates Annie to take a road trip to see the Challenger launch. With her less-than-reliable dad and his handsome young friend, Annie sets out on an excursion that will end in tragedy and change. The novel paints a lovely portrait of a smart, strong, friendly McAuliffe. In fact, the author's background as a NASA engineer makes all of the scenes based at Johnson or Kennedy Space Center grounded and intriguing. Moss's descriptive language is almost poetic. When portraying Annie's life, however, the prose is less elegant. Annie has trouble articulating her confusion about her future, even to herself, and readers are told over and again that she is insecure and socially inept. This slows the book down, and, instead of authentic voices, it's the author's that comes through. Back matter includes a chronology of Christa McAuliffe's life and a bibliography concerning the Challenger.-Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 When 18-year-old Annie meets Christa McAuliffe, who is training at the Johnson Space Center as the first Teacher in Space, she is immediately mesmerized by her courage and charm. Annie is trying to make decisions about her own future, and on an impulse, she embarks on a road trip from her hometown near the space center to Florida to see the space shuttle Challenger launch. Traveling with her father and 21-year-old Tommy, who works with her dad, Annie finds herself wrestling with her identity as a poet and questioning her relationship with her boyfriend. Firmly planted in the mid-1980s, this uneven story follows Annie and her almost inexplicable identification with McAuliffe, including her grief when the Challenger explodes. Annies inner pondering is repetitive and laborious at times, but the idea of outer-space travel paralleling the exploration of an individuals inner space creates moments of true reflection, and some of Annies poetry soars. Nonetheless, this novel will not be an easy sell, even with the approach of the Challenger tragedys twenty-fifth anniversary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)