From School Library Journal
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, IA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 6^-9. In earlier novels, Mikaelsen explored settings as diverse as the Montana mountains and the Florida Keys, providing challenges for his characters and such rich descriptions readers could easily imagine themselves in the story. In
Countdown, widely disparate settings increase the dramatic contrast between the lives of two 14-year-old boys: Vincent Ole Tome, who lives in a remote village in Kenya, and Elliot Schroeder, at home in the high-tech environment of the Johnson Space Center and aboard a space shuttle. Readers soon discover that the boys are very much alike. Each boy is in conflict with his father and must choose between accepting an expected way of life and following his dream. Mr. Schroeder resents Elliot's wanting to leave the family ranch and become a pilot. When Elliot is selected to become NASA's first junior astronaut, the chasm between father and son widens. Vincent wants to attend school, but his father distrusts white culture and threatens to disown the boy if he does not become a traditional Masai warrior. The two strong-willed boys meet via the shortwave radio of Elliot's spacecraft, and every night the world listens to their arguments about their religious and cultural beliefs, which ultimately grow to reflect modern-day world issues. It's only when the boys meet in person that they can see their way clear to begin a relationship respectful of their differences. Mikaelsen weaves a provocative message through his novel and blends two fast-paced stories into a single, powerful whole. Suggest this to language-arts and reading teachers, and be prepared for high demand when they booktalk it.
Chris Sherman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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