Frank Cottrell Boyce
Walden Pond Press (2010)
ISBN 9780061836831
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 11) for Reader Views (02/10)
This book is as good as its title leads you to believe. It is truly cosmic. “Cosmic” by Frank Cottrell Boyce is the story of twelve-year-old Liam whose abnormal height and sprouting beard seems to make him stuck between two worlds, that of kids and that of adults. When a unique opportunity to visit a new state-of-the-art, space-themed amusement park arises, he takes it. However, things aren’t quite what they seemed and he ends up on a rocket on a collision course with the sun. Now Liam is truly stuck between two worlds. Will he ever make it back to Earth?
When Liam is chosen by the Drax Foundation to show up with his “daughter” (who is actually a friend) at a spaced-themed amusement park, he isn’t exactly sure what to think. When he finds out that the park is really a secret rocket launch pad in China, he is scared, but it is too late to change his mind. Dr. Drax (the head of the Drax Foundation) reveals that they will send a rocket into space with five kids and an adult chauffer on board to launch a space hotel that Dr. Drax will use as a tourist vacation spot. As you can probably guess, Liam is going as the adult chauffer. But things go wrong when the buttons used to launch the space hotel are pressed in the wrong order, jamming the space hotel underneath the rocket and sending the rocket and all on board into a perilous orbit around the moon. Can they find a way to get back to Earth or will they become a satellite going around and around the Moon for all eternity?
Liam is just an ordinary kid except for two things, his love of exploration and geography and his exceptional height. At a little over six-feet tall and already starting to grow a beard, he isn’t exactly someone you would look at and say “Oh hey, look at that twelve-year-old.” So naturally people think he is about thirty, and once he almost got a car dealer to let him test drive a car. Luckily (both for the car and him) his dad showed up and got him out of a rather sticky position.
I would recommend “Cosmic” by Frank Cottrell Boyce to people who like adventure. This book was very funny and witty. The book sucks you in from the start and you won’t want to put it down until you finish it.
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