The thing that attracted me to this book was not the little writing at the front saying "its not rocket science." Nor was it the big letters saying "Carnegie medal winner!"(I had no idea what the "Carnegie Medal' was.) It was what was written at the back.
There was an astronaut, on the moon, staring at earth.
And above it were the lines "He always wanted to see the earth....but not quite like this....'" This sudden humor touched my heart and I immediately borrowed it from the library.
Here are some details on the novel:
Name: COSMIC
Author: FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE
Recommended: YES
To Make Note Of: THIS NOVEL IS ABOUT A FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP. IT EXPOSES THE WORLD FILLED WITH TEENAGERS WANTING TO BECOME OLDER AND ADULTS WANTING TO BE YOUNGER. THROUGHOUT, THERE ARE HEARTWARMING JOKES THAT KEEP YOU ENGROSSED. AN EXTREMELY BRILLIANT READ THAT SURELY MAKES IT ONTO MY LIST OF FAVORITE BOOKS.
Now we begin the more descriptive part of the book review.
The book opens with Liam Digby lost. But not lost in a shopping mall or lost in a city.
He's lost in space.
And so begins the story.
The World of Warcraft obsessed, overly tall, 12 year old Liam Digby (who has stubble) acts as a father to the celebrity obsessed Florida Kirby.
Their misadventures begin with the two sitting in a Porsche, with Liam acting like an adult who forgot his driving license and Florida like his innocent daughter, getting ready to drive out of the showroom and onto the street when Liam's dad comes and stops him. But that's not it. Liam tricks his school, his parents, Florida's parents, and Florida herself to allow the two to supposedly go pond dipping as a "Gifted and Talented" activity. But Liam has other ideas. A limo picks them up from their house, drives them to a Learjet, which takes them "down south"--to China.
It is over here, in this place, that the Billionaire Dr. Drax (whose real name actually means something like "Victorious Over Life's Tribulations" but she changed her name to Drax since "Victorious Over Life's Tribulations" doesn't fit on the side of the Draxphones that she invented) trains the four lucky 'adults' (Liam, Monsieur Martinent, Eddie Xanadu, and Samson 1) along with their four lucky 'children' (Florida, Maximum, Hasan, and Samson 2) to become a taikonaut, which is Chinese for astronaut. there is a competition: the best dad will go with the children to space.
Naturally, you know who won.
Eddie Xanadu, of course.
But a mix up afterwards gets Eddie sent to jail and Liam takes his place.
It is a completely automatic shuttle. The only thing the crew (Liam and the four children) has to do is press four buttons in a certain order. But even in this simple task, they mess up and get stuck in space. Their food has worrying names like "Pork That Makes You Eat Your Own Hand", so they are a little cautious before approaching the food.
Then Liam has a brilliant idea.
So he was watching Pirates of the Carribean on a big LCD screen in the rocket while the children were having a water fight-on the moon. The winner? Surface Conditions.
Using knowledge from the amazing Apollo 13 survival, the crew lands somewhere in Siberia. Liam finally leaves, but not before he is given a tip by Max that there is a surprise for him on the moon.
When Shenijian, Dr. Drax's daughter, becomes the supposed first child in space and on the moon, she finds a discovery that completely changes the view that she was the first kid.
Using rocks, Florida, Max, Samson 2, and Hasan had written "Hi Dad!"
When I read the first chapter of Cosmic, I thought that it was overly sarcastic and that so much sarcasm could ruin the reading experience. I mentioned so to my brother; but he said he found nothing that seemed to be trying too hard to tickle the readers' funny bone.
The sarcasm that prevailed in the first chapter was checked in all the later chapters, only chipping in to bring along a hearty chuckle every now and then.
As I had mentioned before, there are many jokes in the story, many of them extremely subtle and cleverly placed so that the reader does not even know when a joke is coming up. Reading that the novel is about a Father-Son relationship, I am sure many of you immediately thought that it would be a rather poignant book meant to evoke either extreme sorrow or joy in the reader. However, this story is not like that.
Usage of capital letters in the middle of sentences help to accentuate the jokes and the feelings of the children. Florida brings along many laughs with her ignorance of science. Liam unknowingly acts stupid in his trials to seem as a dad(he finds reading on the toilet very dadly). the other three adults sneer at him and call him a child (which he really is).
But what I really liked int he story is after Liam gets drunk. When Monsieur Martinent tells him he is acting like a child, he says:
"Well, someone has to! Look at all these children. They're so serious and cross. They aren't like kids at all-they're more like unusually small teachers!"
or something like that.
Although the true meaning of the story is to show the relationship between a dad and his son, you won't even realize it. In fact, only in hindsight did I realize how obvious it was.
There was an astronaut, on the moon, staring at earth.
And above it were the lines "He always wanted to see the earth....but not quite like this....'" This sudden humor touched my heart and I immediately borrowed it from the library.
Here are some details on the novel:
Name: COSMIC
Author: FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE
Recommended: YES
To Make Note Of: THIS NOVEL IS ABOUT A FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP. IT EXPOSES THE WORLD FILLED WITH TEENAGERS WANTING TO BECOME OLDER AND ADULTS WANTING TO BE YOUNGER. THROUGHOUT, THERE ARE HEARTWARMING JOKES THAT KEEP YOU ENGROSSED. AN EXTREMELY BRILLIANT READ THAT SURELY MAKES IT ONTO MY LIST OF FAVORITE BOOKS.
Now we begin the more descriptive part of the book review.
The book opens with Liam Digby lost. But not lost in a shopping mall or lost in a city.
He's lost in space.
And so begins the story.
The World of Warcraft obsessed, overly tall, 12 year old Liam Digby (who has stubble) acts as a father to the celebrity obsessed Florida Kirby.
Their misadventures begin with the two sitting in a Porsche, with Liam acting like an adult who forgot his driving license and Florida like his innocent daughter, getting ready to drive out of the showroom and onto the street when Liam's dad comes and stops him. But that's not it. Liam tricks his school, his parents, Florida's parents, and Florida herself to allow the two to supposedly go pond dipping as a "Gifted and Talented" activity. But Liam has other ideas. A limo picks them up from their house, drives them to a Learjet, which takes them "down south"--to China.
It is over here, in this place, that the Billionaire Dr. Drax (whose real name actually means something like "Victorious Over Life's Tribulations" but she changed her name to Drax since "Victorious Over Life's Tribulations" doesn't fit on the side of the Draxphones that she invented) trains the four lucky 'adults' (Liam, Monsieur Martinent, Eddie Xanadu, and Samson 1) along with their four lucky 'children' (Florida, Maximum, Hasan, and Samson 2) to become a taikonaut, which is Chinese for astronaut. there is a competition: the best dad will go with the children to space.
Naturally, you know who won.
Eddie Xanadu, of course.
But a mix up afterwards gets Eddie sent to jail and Liam takes his place.
It is a completely automatic shuttle. The only thing the crew (Liam and the four children) has to do is press four buttons in a certain order. But even in this simple task, they mess up and get stuck in space. Their food has worrying names like "Pork That Makes You Eat Your Own Hand", so they are a little cautious before approaching the food.
Then Liam has a brilliant idea.
So he was watching Pirates of the Carribean on a big LCD screen in the rocket while the children were having a water fight-on the moon. The winner? Surface Conditions.
Using knowledge from the amazing Apollo 13 survival, the crew lands somewhere in Siberia. Liam finally leaves, but not before he is given a tip by Max that there is a surprise for him on the moon.
When Shenijian, Dr. Drax's daughter, becomes the supposed first child in space and on the moon, she finds a discovery that completely changes the view that she was the first kid.
Using rocks, Florida, Max, Samson 2, and Hasan had written "Hi Dad!"
When I read the first chapter of Cosmic, I thought that it was overly sarcastic and that so much sarcasm could ruin the reading experience. I mentioned so to my brother; but he said he found nothing that seemed to be trying too hard to tickle the readers' funny bone.
The sarcasm that prevailed in the first chapter was checked in all the later chapters, only chipping in to bring along a hearty chuckle every now and then.
As I had mentioned before, there are many jokes in the story, many of them extremely subtle and cleverly placed so that the reader does not even know when a joke is coming up. Reading that the novel is about a Father-Son relationship, I am sure many of you immediately thought that it would be a rather poignant book meant to evoke either extreme sorrow or joy in the reader. However, this story is not like that.
Usage of capital letters in the middle of sentences help to accentuate the jokes and the feelings of the children. Florida brings along many laughs with her ignorance of science. Liam unknowingly acts stupid in his trials to seem as a dad(he finds reading on the toilet very dadly). the other three adults sneer at him and call him a child (which he really is).
But what I really liked int he story is after Liam gets drunk. When Monsieur Martinent tells him he is acting like a child, he says:
"Well, someone has to! Look at all these children. They're so serious and cross. They aren't like kids at all-they're more like unusually small teachers!"
or something like that.
Although the true meaning of the story is to show the relationship between a dad and his son, you won't even realize it. In fact, only in hindsight did I realize how obvious it was.
very very very well written
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