Horrifyingly inaccurate and actually got in the way of my kid's diagnosis! So I wanted to write something where anxiety was represented more accurately to our experience of it.) And the protagonist is a girl (because we need about a zillion more girl and nonbinary protagonists in science-forward SF and adventure stories for kids) with anxiety (because as a parent of a kid with anxiety, I got fed up with the inescapable fictional shorthand of 'anxiety=shyness' which is. It's full of stuff I've always wanted to write about, such as portal-based space travel, mind-control parasites, and a shapeshifting intelligent nanobot swarm, all set in a survival story along the lines of Hatchet (my query comp) or The Martian (my agent's much more SF-relevant comp). Here's the long version of how this book came into being. Not a review! My mom always told me I should try my hand at middle grade, so this is my attempt at that.

I continue to be a fan of Kornher-Stace's work and will read whatever she does next.

However, I am positive that the younger readers will adore this excellent story. I was rooting for Jillian and loved seeing how everything worked out.Īs an older reader I did have to suspend my disbelief a bit. It was lovely to see both their teamwork and their individual growth. They have to use the skills they have to accomplish the mission. SABRINA's strengths and weaknesses are in it's programming. But what I loved more was how both characters had limitations that had to be thought through and dealt with. I did love the robot and the developing relationship it had with Jillian. Good thing that Jillian has SABRINA, an artificial intelligence with a hive mind. How cool is that? But when Jillian accompanies her parents on a routine mission everything goes wrong and Jillian must save the day! But her parents aren't accountants or lawyers. The story follows eleven-year old Jillian who gets to go with her parents on Take Your Kid to Work Day. I may be (much) older but that didn't stop me from really enjoying this space romp. They claim this book be for ages 8 to 12. Ahoy there me mateys! I received this young adult sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kornher stace