Project Mercury and Comet vs. Asteroid

 Smith, Ronald L. Project Mercury.
August 6, 2024 by Clarion Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Ike Pressure knows the drill. His family has moved often, since his mother is an army specialist and his father is a recruiter. Their new posting is the Mercury Army Base in Nevada. There's not a lot to do there, but Ike is okay with that; he's rather be playing video games, and he does occasionally get outside. When he finds out that one of his mother's friends is also moving to Mercury, he's not all that happy, because it means he will once again have to deal with the loud and bossy Eesha Webb, who was born on the same day he was. The Webbs, who also have six year old twins named Jack and Jill, are a very athletic and competitive family. Eesha often refers to Ike as a nerd,  but when she mentions that Area 51 is very close to them and that she thinks Mercury has some ties to aliens, both are able to geek out on all things space and UFO related. They both think that their parents are probably involved, which mades it even more intriguing. When Ike finds an odd, old radio in the basement, and he hears things that sound like code, he is sure that something is up. Eesha and Ike investigate in the woods, and Jill finds something that looks like "alien tech". When Mixie shows up, they are astonished to find that she is from the year 2300! Should she have been time traveling? Of course not, but she was fooling around and traveled back in time. Life in 2300 is pretty good, but she knows better than to tell Ike and Eesha that. The three figure out that the army is involved in a project, and when Ike's mother's phone rings in her purse with the very same tune that has played through the radio, they suspect she is set to time travel. Mixie takes the children with her to the future, and as they are exploring New Glades, there is an emergency announcement; alien ships have been detected and they have to go to Mixie's home. Mixie's parents are NOT thrilled that she has not only traveled to the past but brought children home with her. They manage to contact the Peacekeeper so that Ms. Pressure isn't attacked. Ms. Pressure has traveled to the future to try to get help with the problems plaguing Earth, like climate change and global warming, and the future is glad to help out and send her back to the army with some solutions. Not only that, but the higher ups are so pleased that they offer the children an opportunity to be hired on as Undercover Kids. Will they get to have more adventures in a sequel?
Strengths: Smith gets a HUGE number of bonus points for his optimistic view of 2300 as a time when there have been no wars for over 500 years, society has not collapsed, they haven't had a pandemic in a long time, and they are willing to help the past out with practical solutions to climate change! There's a good sense of mystery about the army project, some tension with Eesha and Ike working together, and some comic relief from the twins. The depiction of life on an army base was very informative. I know that Smith usually writes fantasy, but I would absolutely LOVE him to write a realistic middle grade book about a tween army brat; I believe this was his upbringing, and I think he would write an excellent, funny novel about that life. There are so few (Benedis-Grab's Army Brats and Lesage's AWOL are the only two that come to mind) that this would be a great addition to middle grade books. 
Weaknesses: This could have used a bit more action earlier in the story, and fewer descriptions of tofu lasagna! The only thing worse than eating cardboardy cereal is reading about it! 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Murray and Smith's Alien Summer or Buxbaum and Naidu's Area 51. I couldn't help but think of Fleming's nonfiction Crash from Outer Space when the kids are talking about Area 51; I know that Eesha wants to believe in extraterrestrials, but I'm going to side with Fleming's research on this topic! 

Kuchner, Marc J. and Schu, Matt. Asteroid vs. Comet 

April 23, 2024 by MIT Kids Press

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Can we live on Mars? Is Pluto a planet? Star Wars vs. Star Trek? There's no shortage of geeky, space related questions that tweens readers can ponder, and Asteroid vs. Comet offers new opportunities for scientific thinking. In order to really calculate things properly, we first meet both an asteroid, in the Asteroid Belt, and a comet, in the Oort Cloud. We find out that while asteroids are hot, comets are cold, and learn the speeds, weights, and composition of the competing bodies. The two rarely collide, but this is a fun speculation. 

This is not quite a comic book (although it is a comet book!), but a nicely sized nonfiction book with lots of illustrations. Each topic is approached with a page from both the asteroid and the comet point of view, and the text is very readable. Words and ideas are nicely explained, and I was able to understand the scientific concepts. There is definitely an air of suspense in this, which is hard to create in a science related nonfiction book, and I won't ruing the ending and tell you who survived the hypothetical collision!

While some young readers love nonfiction and don't want to read anything else, it can be a challenge to get some readers to pick up books with facts. This is a perfect length, and is highly engaging. The pictures help, and I can see this being a book that I can recommend to my students who need to include some science themed nonfiction books in the mix, even if they aren't wanting to pick them up. 

I love when young readers have specific interests, and space is a topic that frequently sparks readers to search for information. Regas' 1,000 Facts About Space Aldrin and Dyson's Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet, Lowery's Everything Awesome About Space and Other Galactic Facts!,  McAnulty's Where Are the Aliens, and Drimmer's Can't Get Enough Space Stuff.