63 pages • 2 hours read
Jack ChengSee You in the Cosmos
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “New Recording 1: 6M 19S”
Alex Petroski, age 11, begins a series of audio recordings intended for intelligent extraterrestrial creatures. Alex introduces himself, his dog Carl Sagan (named for Alex’s favorite scientist), and his idea to send the iPod into which he is recording his thoughts to space. His hero, scientist Carl Sagan, inspired this idea: “Dr. Sagan helped send Voyagers 1 and 2 into deep space and put a Golden Record on them with all kinds of sounds from our planet, like whales singing and people saying hello in fifty-five languages […]” (4). Alex intends to capture similar sounds along with his recordings and send his “Golden iPod” on a rocket launch at a space festival called SHARF.
Alex mentions his home in Rockview, Colorado and his mother and brother. He lives with his mother; she tends to lie on the couch, watch TV, and have “quiet days.” She was unconcerned when he brought home the stray puppy Carl Sagan. Ronnie, Alex’s brother, lives in Los Angeles and works as an agent for professional athletes. The reader learns that Alex has not seen Ronnie in almost a year.
Chapter 2 Summary: “New Recording 2: 6M 41S”
Alex tells his alien audience more about SHARF. The Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival in the desert near Albuquerque, New Mexico is a gathering of hobby rocket enthusiasts who bring their self-constructed rockets for launching. Alex “met” many participants in an online group called Rocketforum.org. Taking a break from packing for SHARF, Alex uses a ladder to climb the roof, where he has a view of the neighborhood: “Sometimes after my mom has one of her quiet days she’ll need fresh air so she’ll go for a walk, and when I’m up here I can see where she walks” (11). Alex also describes how a friend of Ronnie’s, Justin Mendoza, gave him the used iPod for free the day before. Justin asked Alex about practice-launching the rocket Alex constructed. Alex told Justin that he used a computerized simulation program to “practice.”
Chapter 3 Summary: “New Recording 3: 6M 16S”
Alex cannot sleep the night before he leaves for SHARF, so he makes another recording. The reader learns that he made meals for his mother for the time he will be gone. He tells how he keeps Ronnie’s side of their room exactly the same and implies that he misses Ronnie: “Sometimes I sleep in his bed, though, because maybe if you sleep where another person sleeps and do what that person does, then eventually you’ll start turning into that person” (14). Alex explains that his father died when he was three and mentions how in Contact (a favorite movie), Dr. Arroway lost her father “when she was a kid also” (16). Alex says he cannot miss a father he does not recall, but for a school project using Ancestry.com, he tries to learn about his dad’s life.
Chapter 4 Summary: “New Recording 4”
This recording is blank, standing for a failed attempt.
Chapter 5 Summary: “New Recording 5: 8M 52S”
Alex explains that his attempt at New Recording 4 failed because he was crying too hard to speak. Now he explains the problem: At the Amtrak station, the ticket clerk will not allow Alex on the train to Albuquerque without an adult. He sees that Alex is not yet 13 from his school ID. Alex insists he is at least 13 in terms of responsibility, but he can’t get on the train until an “older kid” with a large backpack sees Alex crying and poses as Alex’s older brother. Alex is appreciative: “Thank you for pretending to be my adult” (25). The “older kid” helps Alex lift his wagon of packed belongings and rocket components onto the train and takes him to find the pet-friendly seats.
Chapter 6 Summary: “New Recording 6: 7M 36S”
Alex starts a new recording, and a young girl asks what he is doing. He tells her, “I’m making recordings to send to outer space” (26), but the little girl is more interested in Alex’s dog and a card game called Battlemorphs. The recording picks up their conversation, represented like a script with speaker designations before each spoken line. Soon the train slows, then stops: “Um, we’re completely stopped now. People are looking out the window trying to figure out what’s going on” (31).
Chapter 7 Summary: “New Recording 7: 6M 3S”
The train attendant allows passengers off the train, so Alex takes Carl Sagan for a walk. He sees that an ambulance came for the “older kid” who posed as his brother. Alex does not learn why. While he observes the “older kid,” Alex meets Zed, a passenger whom Alex initially assumes is a martial arts expert because of his robes and bald head. Zed uses an iPad-sized chalkboard to communicate (which Alex calls a “chalkpad”) because he is under a vow of silence. Alex discovers that he and Zed share the same destination: “Wait, YOU’RE going to SHARF? I thought you were a martial arts master!” (35). Zed calms Alex’s worries about missing his ride with Rocketforum.org acquaintances due to the train’s late arrival.
Chapter 8 Summary: “New Recording 8: 7M 4S”
In the sightseer car, Alex tells Zed that he used the internet to learn about rockets, SHARF, and his father. Zed writes “Tell Me More” (38) on the chalkpad, so Alex relays information about his mom, brother, friend Benji, and Carl Sagan. Zed laughs in response to many things Alex says. The iPod records their real-time conversation, with chalkpad sounds standing in for Zed’s replies.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
In this set of chapters, Alex begins his quest to launch his rocket and iPod. He relates facts about his house, brother, dog, school, neighborhood, and mother that serve as exposition to this simple quest plot. He encounters trouble upon leaving his Ordinary World when he learns that he cannot board the train without an adult. The ticket attendant plays the character archetype role of a Threshold Guardian because he prevents Alex from continuing his journey. Alex overcomes this first conflict by accepting help from the backpacking “older kid.” The “older kid” leaves the train hurt or sick, foreshadowing future conflicts for Alex.
This simple quest plot provides a cover for the internal conflict and quest to which Alex will eventually turn his attention. For now, the reader gets only brief clues about Alex’s real life with his mother and his true conflicts. He reveals that she has “quiet days,” takes long walks, and shows zero concern when he brings Carl Sagan home except to tell him he’s in the way of her view of the TV. She spends long hours on the sofa, and Alex handles grown-up chores for her, such as preparing meals for his mother to eat while he is at SHARF: “I’ve been making food so much for us this year that I’d feel bad if I didn’t do something” (14). Ronnie has not been home in almost a year and his phone conversations with Alex concern finances; the reader can infer that Ronnie is unaware of Alex’s situation and their mother’s developing problems.
Alex himself seems unaware of his mother’s issues. He also relates that because he does not recall his father, he cannot miss having one. He focuses on completing the recordings and launching his self-built rocket at SHARF, though the reader finds clues to his family conflict in his delivery to the aliens: “Or maybe your whole language is laughing and you have laughs that mean you’re happy and laughs that mean you’re hungry or that you haven’t seen your brother in a long time and you miss him” (40). A shift in his objective is foreshadowed by the “older kid” who helps Alex onto the train: “He said, No problem, I hope you find what you’re looking for, and I told him I’m not looking for anything, I’m launching a rocket, remember?” (25). Though Alex does not realize it yet, he will begin a quest for answers to his family’s background; his experiences along the way will turn and shape his character arc over the course of the book.
A notable relationship with Zed begins in these chapters. Alex misunderstands Zed’s identity initially, showing his innocence outside his Ordinary World. Zed’s curiosity and genuine interest in Alex—“Tell me more”–make him a complementary kindred spirit; they are well-suited for one another as Alex chatters along while Zed silently absorbs deeper meaning.
