Author: Robin Vaupel
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication Year: 2007
Lexile: 850L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)
Most of the readers will be: Boys in late elementary to middle school who like science fiction (and science fact!).
Reader's Advisory: For a science fiction book with a female protagonist try Madeline L'Engle's An Acceptable Time.
Summary:
Austin is a 13 year old boy who likes looking at microorganisms under his microscope. He has learned everything he knows about science from his grandfather Walter. Now Walter is coming to stay with Austin's family because he is dying of cancer. Austin is excited to see his grandfather, but having trouble coping with the fact that he is dying.
Walter brings Austin an exciting gift - a miniature star. This star starts making Austin's wishes come true! Even wishes he doesn't know he has.
The star transforms his two clownfish into lungfish, his lizard into a pterosaur, and his old dog into a puppy. But that is only the beginning of the "enhancements" Austin either purposely or accidentally performs using Spark (the star).
Austin gets into trouble when he starts enhancing humans. He causes both his friend Rey, and his angsty 14 year old sister, Garland, to regress to younger versions of themselves. After several close calls at Camp Quantum (a two week summer science camp), Austin is forced to be more careful when wielding his star power.
His greatest and last enhancement is supposed to be saving the life of his grandfather and he wants to get it just right.
My favorite passage:
"What's happened to you, child?" Walter asked, and reached out to a tendril of hair that protruded from her temple like an orange antenna.
Austin flinched. To comment, even offhandedly, about Garland's appearance was beyond insulting; it was to confess your own ignorance about art, culture, and creativity.
Garland sighed and gave her eyes a half roll. "Okay, so nothing has happened to me. It's called Tainted Sunset."
Walter was straining to see past the heavy eyeliner and mascara to find the granddaughter he remembered. He wasn't the only one who'd lost sight of her; Austin knew there had once been another Garland, before the transformation of her eighth-grade year, when she had disappeared under a shroud of black clothes, but the shadow of this present sister had eclipsed the memory of her.
"My hair color, Granddad, do you like it?"
"No," he said, "I don't. You look like something from a Parisian back alley."
She tossed her head back, smiling slightly, and Austin thought there was a terrible glory about Garland as the sun lit up her hair and glinted off her facial jewelry.
"That is so amazing you said that, Granddad, because I'm going to Paris someday."
"For college?"
"No!" she said disdainfully. "For something real. I'm going there to live and write poetry."(pg 11-12)
What I really think:
I like the way this book deals with death and dying. Austin can get almost anything he wants with his wish giving star, but he can't force a life upon his grandfather that his grandfather doesn't want. Vaupel also illustrates in many ways the hard lesson: be careful what you wish for. She skillfully delivers these points in the unusual context of a boy who has more unicellular friends than multicellular ones and reflects on the occurrences in his life using lab notes. I am a little disappointed that Garland isn't restored to her 14 year old self at the end. Older sisters should be accepted for who they are during all the difficult phases of their adolescence.
1 comment:
I strongly agree with most of your thoughts. I do, however, like the fact that Garland is able to remain as an 11-year-old. In my opinion, she's able to get a second chance to redo the mistakes she made and to keep her inner child. In this way, Garland avoids making the decision to change herself in a way that could harm her in the future. Not to mention that she forms a stronger bond with her dying grandfather and brother.
Post a Comment