What Goes Up by Katie Kennedy – ADVISABLE

Kennedy, Katie What Goes Up 336 pgs. Bloomsbury, 2017. $17.99 

Content: Language: G (10 swears); Mature Content: PG(Kissing) Violence: PG13 (fighting, threats)

Rosa and Eddie are trying out for a new NASA team that allegedly will be making first contact if any aliens should approach earth. There are hundreds of applicants and the tryouts are lengthy, strange, and often brutal. Eddie will have to face his past and Trevor will have to learn bravery. When an unexpected craft appears the pair, their instructors and another candidate are thrown into a terrifying and challenging adventure, tasked with saving earth as we know it.

That is hands down one of the worse descriptions I have ever written, there is just WAY too much to spoil, as many unexpected things happen. This is a Sci-Fi adventure with lots of technology and out of the box thinking. The author does an out of this world job with character building, but not quite as much with setting the scene, so often I had trouble picturing some of the events or settings. The tryout part is way too long and repetitive, showing how special the teens were over and over again, which may lead to some readers giving up before the super fast paced action portion of the book. The swearing and slight content feels natural and isn’t excessive by any means. A great book for sci-fi fans!

HS  –ADVISABLE  Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.