Countdown
Grade 5-8.  If you can buy the premise that NASA would randomly choose a teenager to serve as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle, then this ambitious book will make an enjoyable near-future-fiction read. Elliot Schroeder, 14, of Crazy Peak, MT, is selected to fly on the shuttle, while Vincent Tome, a 14-year-old Maasai youth living in Kenya, considers whether his future lies as a warrior or as a person educated in the white man's ways. The boys' stories merge when Elliot, whose primary assignment is to talk from orbit via short-wave radio to ham-radio operators around the world, contacts Vincent. Their vast cultural differences spark genuine conflict, distrust, and dislike. When a shuttle emergency forces a landing at Dakar, Senegal, NASA flies Vincent to meet Elliot, allowing the boys to reach across space and culture to make the world a bit more peaceful. Both boys are credibly shown to be inquisitive idealists. And they are dreamers, yearning for lives that exceed their fathers' expectations. Elliot feels he must outperform the alternate Teen-in-Space applicant, a girl named Mandy, while Vincent (more convincingly) faces conflicts with Leboo, a boastful bully. Careful research allows integration of details that lend authenticity to the tale, and the plot moves quickly enough to engage the intended audience while challenging readers to consider their own cultural biases.?Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.