Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass

Middle School

Joss is the seventh son of the Supreme Overlord of the Universe. His older brothers help his dad rule the cosmos, but all Joss gets to do is deliver pies. That’s right: pies. Of course, these pies actually hold the secrets of the universe between their buttery crusts, but they’re still pies.

Joss is happy to let his older brothers shine. He has plenty to keep his hands full: attempting to improve his bowling score; listening to his best friend, Kal, try (and fail) to play the drums; and exploring his ever-changing home, The Realms. But when Earth suddenly disappears, Joss is tasked with the seemingly impossible job of rebuilding it. 

With the help of Annika, an outspoken girl from Earth, he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime…and learns that the universe is an even stranger place than he’d imagined.

I can describe this story with one word: Complex!

Just like Every Soul a Star, I can’t even imagine how much research must have gone into writing this story. I had to go back and reread some of the more scientific passages to try to understand it all. In a nutshell: the universe is constantly expanding, we are all just a small speck of dust floating in the universe and we take for granted that we exist at all. And lots of other big words and facts I’ve heard on ‘The Big Bang Theory’ but don’t understand completely. Just read the Author’s Note at the end of the book because I’m not capable of explaining it all to you. And don’t get me started on trying to explain The Realms. You’re on your own on trying to figure that place out. 

What I find interesting is that out of all the different species living in the universe, the occupants of The Realms find Earth the most entertaining. Apparently out of all other living being in the universe, we’re the only ones who’ve developed a sense of humor.

Here’s a somewhat cool fact that some people might get a kick out of. Annika, the earthling girl, lives in Ohio. You might not think this is a big deal but when your mother is originally from Ohio and almost every book I have ever read mentions Ohio in some way or another it’s a big deal. The fact that the last Earthling girl in the universe is from Ohio means something. Ohio is the center of the universe. WOO HOO! GO OHIO! OHIO RULES! O-H! I-O! OHIO!

Each chapter starts with a quote from real people who know a lot of really cool stuff, people who are famous astronomers, physicists, writers, philosophers, chemists, and mathematicians. Here are a few of my favorites:

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

- Carl Sagan, astronomer

What Carl Sagan is saying here is that the elements inside a pie – and inside everything – came from the birth of the universe. This quote is where ‘Pi in the Sky’ started.

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand.

- Lawrence M. Krauss, physicist 

When I read this quote I immediately looked at both my hands.

Check out ‘Yakko’s Universe Song’ on YouTube. You don’t have to but it’s a catchy song and to does a good job of explaining that it’s a great big universe and we’re just tiny little specks compared to it.

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

Middle School

At Moon Shadow, an isolated campground, thousands have gathered to catch a glimpse of a rare and extraordinary total eclipse of the sun. It’s also where three lives are about to be changed forever:

Alpha a.k.a. Ally likes the simple things in life—labyrinths, star-gazing, and comet-hunting. Her home, the Moon Shadow campground, is a part of who she is, and she refuses to imagine it any other way.

Popular and gorgeous (everybody says so), Bree is a future homecoming queen for sure. Bree wears her beauty like a suit of armor. But what is she really hiding?

Overweight and awkward, Jack is used to spending a lot of time alone. But when opportunity knocks, he finds himself in situations he never would have imagined and making friends in the most unexpected situations.

An amazing coming-of-age story that everyone interested in space should read.

Bree is what you would call stuck up and small minded. She spends way too much time thinking about her looks and other people’s looks; she even rates people on a scale of 1 to 10. Don’t take to heart anything Bree says in the first few chapters. I don’t/can’t read books with this sort of character anymore. I just lost my patience to put up with them anymore. I’m just glad this book has two other main characters that I like more than Bree.

Jack is a lot more interesting than Bree. Jack hasn’t really done much in his 13 years of life but when he gets the chance to get out of summer school by attending solar eclipse tour with his science teacher, he jumps at it. Jack’s character grows a lot during his trip. He ends up being a hero multiple times but each time he doesn’t believe he is.

Ally is my favorite main character. She’s completely dedicated to her home and outer space. She loves her home and she has every right to. The Moon Shadow Campgrounds is pretty amazing. I’d go there. As the story goes, Ally learns that the people around her are changing but she’s pretty much stayed the same.

I kept dreading the moment when Ally and Bree would meet. Those two are as different as night and day and I just knew the two of them would clash. Some of the stuff Bree says to Ally made me cringe. There’s also a twist in this story that you’ll have to read this book to find out but when I figured it out, I was like “Oh boy. This is gonna get messy.”

Wendy Mass does a great job at explain how a solar eclipse works. A solar eclipse is the obscuring of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and a point on the Earth. Here’s a diagram of the how it works:

Not the best diagram but you get the picture.

Anyone remember the solar eclipse that happened in the United States back in August 21, 2017? Well I do. Because I got to see it! I didn’t get to see the total eclipse but I was lucky enough to be walking my dog when some neighbors let me look through their eclipse glasses. It was incredible!

This story talks a lot about star-gazing, constellations, comets, asteroids, meteors, beings on other planets, and many other space related things. For any of you science geeks out there who want a book to read, here’s the book for you.