Gr 4-7-Twelve-year-olds Ro and Benji are both having a rough start to the school year. (Jan.) Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission. Though the plot unfolds slowly into a predictable arc, alternating first-person chapters provide insight into each character's fears, worries, and hopes, creating two compelling, relatable protagonists who recognize the strengths in their differences and help each other forge new paths forward. But with a bully in their class determined to thwart them both and their plan hitting roadblocks, their friendship suddenly seems anything but certain. After the swapped folders lead to a friendly bond, the pair strike a deal: Ro will help find Benji's dad if Benji helps Ro build a science fair-winning rocket. Benji, a talented white artist who's not fond of school, is obsessed with comics series Spacebound, which he's convinced is authored by his absentee father, whom he thinks is communicating with him through the story. Budding scientist Ro, who is 'exactly half Chinese, a quarter Scottish, and a quarter Irish,' lives with her mother and dreams of sending a rocket to space to honor her late father. Doesn't he realize how much Ro wishes she could be in his place? As the two face bullying, grief, and their own differences, Benji and Ro must try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.ĭebut author Li explores themes of bullying and cultural identity, volleying between two seventh grade narrators who, on the first day of school in 1984 Sacramento, mistakenly switch folders in science class. But Benji hesitates, which infuriates Ro. Though Ro and Benji were only supposed to be science class partners, the pair become unlikely friends: Benji helps Ro finish her rocket, and Ro figures out a way to reunite Benji and his dad. Too bad his dad walked out years ago, and Benji has no way to contact him. When he finds a sketch that suggests that his dad created the comics, he's thrilled. Benjamin Burns doesn't like science, but he can't get enough of Spacebound, a popular comic book series.

When he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together. The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him. This #ownvoices debut about losing and finding family, forging unlikely friendships, and searching for answers to big questions will resonate with fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead. By Grade + Interest - K to 1st By Grade + Interest - 2nd to 3rd By Grade + Interest - 4th to 5th

Clues to the Universe by Christina Li