See You in the Cosmos

See You in the Cosmos, a 2017 middle-grade contemporary novel by Jack Cheng, features 11-year-old Alex Petroski as its main character and narrator. Inspired by scientist Carl Sagan, Alex wants to use a hand-built rocket to send audio recordings about life on Earth to extraterrestrial creatures. Though his quest to communicate with alien life fails, Alex finds himself on a much larger journey toward self-identity and truth. The novel is a Golden Kite Award Winner and Junior Library Guild Selection. This guide references the 2017 edition by Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House).

Plot Summary

Each chapter is the transcript of one audio recording. Alex Petroski, age 11, tells his story in first-person narrative as he records his thoughts and ongoing experiences for an intended audience of intelligent space creatures. Occasionally the recording device, Alex’s iPod, picks up conversations or other characters’ narratives that contribute to the plot.

Alex introduces himself in the first recording. He lives with his mother, who has “quiet days” and takes long walks, in Rockview, Colorado. Alex’s mother is unresponsive and unconcerned with him, and he tends to their basic needs like cooking. Alex’s older brother Ronnie lives in Los Angeles and works as an agent for athletes. Alex has a dog named after Alex’s “hero,” scientist Carl Sagan.

Alex’s initial goal is to attend the Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival (SHARF) in the desert near Albuquerque, New Mexico, a gathering for those interested in aerospace science and hobby rocketry, to launch his “Golden iPod” into space. Carl Sagan's Golden Record, onto which Sagan recorded descriptions and sounds of Earth to send on a space launch, inspired Alex’s Golden iPod idea. Alex and his dog travel by train to SHARF, where his homemade rocket fails. Alex spontaneously changes his focus to traveling to Las Vegas in search of his father, whom he thought was deceased until a notification on Ancestry.com sparks his curiosity.

Zed, a man Alex meets on the train, and Zed’s roommate Steve drive Alex to Las Vegas. Steve loses Carl Sagan, and their search for the dog prompts them to seek Alex’s “maybe-dad” for help. Alex learns that his father is indeed dead, but he meets a half-sister, Terra. Both Terra and Alex want answers as to how they have the same father but never knew about each other. Frustrated by her own mother’s response, Terra decides to bring Alex to Ronnie in Los Angeles, where Steve and Zed also live.

Ronnie is traveling for business when they arrive. Terra is the inadvertent cause of conflict between Steve and his roommate Nathan, so Terra and Alex leave Los Angeles for the long drive back to Rockview. When they arrive, Alex’s mother is not there. Alex climbs to the roof to see if she is out walking but falls. Terra drives him to the hospital. Terra pieces together from Alex and from clues at his house that his mother often leaves him alone for days. Ronnie arrives, and he and Terra find Alex’s and Ronnie’s mother, recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, in another hospital.

Ronnie realizes that his mother’s condition left Alex to care for himself. He also shares with Alex that their father was unkind and unfaithful. The Department of Human Services sends Juanita, a social worker, to decide if Alex should go to foster care. Terra, Steve, Zed, Ronnie, and Alex all work to clean the house before Juanita’s visit. She allows Alex to stay in the home but tells Ronnie he should move back to Colorado. Ronnie accepts the responsibility and agrees.

Alex’s story catches the attention of Lander Civet, head of CivSpace, a rocket engineering corporation, and Lander sends Alex, Terra, and Ronnie to Cape Canaveral to see a rocket launch. Alex realizes that his Golden iPod and rocket dreams might be possible someday through the love and help of family members and friends, like the ones he found on this journey.