Rocket Ship

Two disaffected seventh graders decide that the solution to their troubled lives is to build a rocket ship in an offbeat adventure that toys with science fiction and magical realism. Together, Gary and Lincoln design the ship and attempt to collect needed materials, while dealing with bullies, dismissive adults, and curious classmates. When word of their scheme to reach the Moon spreads, they find they're not the only ones looking for an escape from reality. Soon, the project is a communal effort, one that challenges their resolve. Told in an almost dreamlike fashion in present-tense narration, the story unfolds with painstaking leisure, weighed down by minute details and philosophical asides ("Middle school is where the molding begins, smoothens, and then hardens, and the cafeteria is the potter's wheel. It's a good thing there is chocolate milk, for every explorer and discoverer knows that it is, most definitely and undeniably, a good thing"). With such purple prose and ambiguous subtext%E2%80%94how much of this is real, how much is fantasy?%E2%80%94it's a story that's hard to categorize. Ages 9%E2%80%9312.