Customer Reviews

My Trip to Alpha I

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Here's the booktalk I used in presenting this to students: Jack was making his first trip by Voya-Code from earth to the Planet Alpha I. It was 6 million light years away, but the trip would only take a few seconds by Voya-Code. It seemed more like going to the hospital than going on a trip. First you are wired up to the computer and then given a shot. When you woke up, you're there. At least your personality and mind are there. Your body stayed behind on the old planet in sleep storage until you returned.
On the new planet, you have an identical body, a dummy, to use until you return. All went well with his trip, but when he arrived at Alpha I, Jack discovered that strange things were happening there.

Jack didn't want to go to Alpha I. But Aunt Katherine had specifically asked for him to come and help her pack up to return to Earth. And she'd even paid for him to travel by voya-code. But when he gets there, something doesn't seem right. All she can talk about are the Arbos, her servants. And they seem too nice. What's really going on? And can Jack stop it all by himself?

I had read the author's other science fiction as a kid, but never gotten around to this one. I really missed out. The story is fairly straight forward, but it's lots of fun. The future world presented is interesting, and will capture kid's imagination.

The book is short, but will appeal to kids just beginning to read chapter books.

Jack lives on Earth, but he is going to visit his aunt on plant Alpha I. He'll travel there in only a few seconds by "voya-code." His identical-looking dummy on Alpha I will "come to life" as a result of a computer input, and his real body will "sleep" until the code of his real self is programmed back into it.

Well, anyway, Jack discovers that his aunt, who's supposed to be real, is a dummy. But why? And how can he foil the masters of his aunt?

[Science fiction for the intermediate grades.]

The Creative Teacher: Activities for Language Arts (Grades 4 through 8 and Up)