(The only changes I did was of formatting issues because those dashes didn't seem good in this font. )
Hello! Thanks for your patience - I got Covid last week and have been recovering from that, so I’ve been especially slow to respond to emails. - I don’t personally use a grammar checker. I re-read what I write over and over to look for mistakes. Or in some cases, I have an editor or a friend read what I wrote and try to find mistakes. - My first drafts also have a lot of words! One thing I do sometimes after my first draft is summarize what I’m trying say in a list of bullet points. Then I try to cut out the unnecessary bits in my second draft. - I’m not currently working on a sequel to See You in the Cosmos, but I’m always happy to hear from readers like you that you’re interested in one. Maybe I’ll work on it in the future. I’m actually about to finish a different book, that’s more based on my experience growing up Chinese-American in Metro Detroit. That book should come out next year. - There’s an interesting story behind the “brother” on the train: I was trying to figure out how to get Alex on the train without an adult. But it didn’t seem like he was the type of kid who would try to sneak on board. At the time I was writing that part, the author photo I was planning to use in the back of the book showed me wearing a blue bandana. So I wrote in that detail for the older kid, as a way of saying that I, the author, have to help Alex on his journey. It was a little bit of a cheat. Otherwise it doesn’t have that much significance to the story itself - but I’m glad you noticed it!
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IMPORTANT. If you have not read this book and want to recommend this to a child, don't.This book contains swear words. For the most part swear words are truncated or replaced (for instance, shit to sh-- or bleep), but it is made clear that whatever is substituted is a swear word. I myself am light on swear words, and so is my school. (For your information I am precisely 13 so I am not underage.) This also includes French-Kissing and periods (as in menstruation). This is probably because the book is originally made for adults. (Though I don't think this is an excuse. This is published as a children's book, after all.) The older brother Ronnie doesn't pay attention and wrongly gives Alex permission to travel by himself with two strangers. But in my perspective, unlike what a parent might think, this book is awesome. I finished rereading this book for the fifth time today. Personally, I like this novel. I have seen comments that this book was plagiarized, but I have not read the other book. Thus, I can not, and will not, make the decision if it was plagiarised. If this book is indeed plagiarised, this book would score 0. I think this novel deserves a rating of 5/5 as an adult's book, if (and only if) it was not plagiarised. SUMMARYThe main character Alex is a boy whose dad died when he was three. He is a rocket enthusiast, and his hero is Carl Sagan, the author of the book Pale Blue Dot, and the scientist who sent Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 into Outer Space. Inspired by his hero's Golden Record, Alex makes a Golden iPod. He records his story, and this is how the novel is formatted. We learn that Alex wants to go to the "Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival", known as SHARF on Rocketforum.org. Alex has made a rocket, Voyager 3, and tested it on his rocket simulator. He wishes to send his golden iPod into space using this rocket. We learn about his dog. He takes him and his dog, along with essential material on his wagon, onto the train that will take him to SHARF. But when he attempts to board the train, the manager told him that he needs to be accompanied by an adult. Thus, he finds some stranger nearby and takes him as his brother. I think this needs a disclaimer that says DON'T DO THIS. But alas, it works, and Alex successfully snuck onto the train. On the train, he meets an insignificant boy called... let me check... Lacey. He plays Battlemorphs with Lacey. Suddenly the train stops and we see Alex's "brother" go to the hospital. (I wonder what significance this has. Foreshadowing? Red herring? Suspense? Pun? None of these are particularly outstanding but all of them could have happened.) Then he met the "Martial Arts Master" Zed, who has a vow of silence and is going to SHARF as well. They arrive 2.5 hours later than they expected and meet Steve, Zed's roommate and teammate, who gives them the ride. Alex's rocket didn't work, because the simulator didn't work and he glued the rocket poorly. He promises to double his efforts next time and build Voyager 4. However, the recent notification from Ancestry.com was bothering him. It had found a match of his deceased dad, with the same name and birthday. He doesn't think this is a coincidence, and neither does Zed. They finally persuade Steve to drive him, after Ronnie gave permission to Alex. However, Ronnie wasn't paying attention at the time. Alex, Zed, and Ronnie went to Las Vegas to supposedly find Alex's "maybe dad", and lose Carl Sagan on their way. When they arrived at the house of Alex's father, they find that Alex has a half-sister Terra and that his dad managed to marry Donna, Terra's mother. Alex's dad did indeed die eight years ago. When Terra's mom explained to Terra, Terra refuses to accept how Donna and Howard, her step-father, had hidden this away from her. Then, during a stay at Steve's girlfriend's house, Steve thought that Terra likes his roommate Nathan, and wants to get revenge by telling Alex his dreams will fail. Terra and Alex leave and returns to Alex's house, only to find that Alex's mom is missing. Shortly afterward, Alex fell down a ladder and had surgery. When he recovered, they found that Alex's mom has schizophrenia. The five people, Zed, Ronnie, Steve, Alex, and Terra, had to pay for all the bills, and thus posted the story onto Rocketforum.org. It was a success, and the bills got paid out. Although it attracted a social worker to investigate, the social worker did not break apart the family. Ronnie sacrifices and stays at Alex's house, and Lander Civet invites Alex to come to see the rocket launch. I had actually thought Alex would succeed in bringing his iPod into space; I was thinking maybe his iPod gets put on the rocket until I read the last page. It wasn't disappointing, though. THEMESA lot of them. Being brave, overcoming obstacles, and friendship, just to list a few. COMMON COMPLAINTSSome people had thought of this formatting as strange and unusual. Indeed, there are a few excerpts that go: I told him blablablablabla and he said blablablablabla and I said blablablablabla and he said blablablablabla. But in my opinion, this is a way of representing the mood of the story. I don't think that this complicates reading the book, either. For instance, take this excerpt: I calmed down finally to just scattered showers, and I told him I'm supposed to go to SHARF to launch my Golden iPod into space and all my friends from Rocketforum.org are going to be there, and I spent a fortune on the train ticket and I made food for my mom and put the GladWare in the refrigerator and now there's no way I can go because I'm not thirteen even though I'm at least thirteen in responsibility years. (Page 22/23) A yucky four-line sentence! But for a reason. The main character Alex is scared. He is hurricane-ing. Thus, it feels normal that such a character will speak this way. Another thing is that Carl Sagan is missing for most of the story and that the cover is false advertising. However, even when Carl Sagan is missing for most of the story, he is not absent for most parts of the plot. Such a say, I believe, is wrong. What do you want to hear about next?
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