Booktalk #1

How can Nova explain what happens when the world around her is imploding?

She is supposed to be a supernova--a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. Her older sister Bridget says so. Bridget also says Nova is a thinker, not a talker.

Twelve-year-old Nova is nonverbal and struggles to be understood. She and Bridget have been shuffled around in the foster care system for years. Nova’s world explodes and implodes, however, after being separated from Bridget. 

In 1986, before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the sisters struggle to find a place to belong.

Through chapters that alternate with letters from Nova to Bridget, readers start to gather the debris and piece together the story from Nova’s perspective. As Nova’s brightness shines through the explosion and implosion of her world, the debris settles. What will Nova discover when the dust clears?  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award, 2021)

Booktalk #2

Nova and her big sister, Bridget, share a love of astronomy and the space program. They planned to watch the space shuttle Challenger launch together. But Bridget has disappeared, and Nova is in a foster home. While foster families and teachers dismiss Nova as severely autistic and nonverbal, Bridget understood how intelligent and special Nova is. Every day Nova is counting down to the launch and Bridget’s hopeful return.  (Sunshine State Young Readers Award Books 2020-2021)

Booktalk #3

Nova LOVES space. Just like every kid her age, she can’t wait to watch the Challenger Launch. It’s something exciting when everything has been changing. Nova’s sister, Bridget, is missing and Nova is in a new foster home. Bridget was always the person who understood Nova who is autistic and nonverbal, and Bridget helped foster Nova’s love of space. As Nova starts to make sense of her new world, she gets excited for the Challenger Launch for a personal reason. She knows Bridget will come for her, because Bridget told her, “No matter what, I’ll be there. I promise.”  (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2021-2022)