Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    We Dream of Space: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
    We Dream of Space: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
    We Dream of Space: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
    Audiobook5 hours

    We Dream of Space: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

    Written by Erin Entrada Kelly

    Narrated by Ramon de Ocampo

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Newbery Honor Book

    “A captivating story about family’s enduring bonds.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “Another wondrous title from a remarkably talented author.” —Booklist (starred review)

    “A 10 out of 10. Anyone interested in science, sibling relationships, and friendships will enjoy reading We Dream of Space.” —Time for Kids

    Newbery Medalist and New York Times–bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly transports readers to 1986 and introduces them to the unforgettable Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas in this pitch-perfect middle grade novel about family, friendship, science, and exploration. A great choice for readers of Kate DiCamillo, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Rebecca Stead.

    Great for summer reading or anytime! A Today show pick for “25 children’s books your kids and teens won’t be able to put down this summer!""

    Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties.

    Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn’t understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA’s first female shuttle commander, but feels like she’s disappearing. 

    The Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project—they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.

    Told in three alternating points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically rich novel for middle grade readers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 5, 2020
    ISBN9780063004825
    Author

    Erin Entrada Kelly

    Erin Entrada Kelly was awarded the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space. She grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware. She is a professor of children’s literature in the graduate fiction and publishing programs at Rosemont College, where she earned her MFA, and is on the faculty at Hamline University. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Short Fiction and the Pushcart Prize. Before becoming a children’s author, Erin worked as a journalist and magazine editor and received numerous awards for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press. Erin Entrada Kelly’s debut novel, Blackbird Fly, was a Kirkus Best Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, an ALSC Notable Book, and an Asian/Pacific American Literature Honor Book. She is also the author of The Land of Forgotten Girls, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; You Go First, a Spring 2018 Indie Next Pick; Lalani of the Distant Sea, an Indie Next Pick; Those Kids from Fawn Creek, named to numerous best-of-the-year lists; and three acclaimed novels for younger readers, Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, Surely Surely Marisol Rainey, and Only Only Marisol Rainey, which she also illustrated. She lives in Delaware.

    More audiobooks from Erin Entrada Kelly

    Related to We Dream of Space

    Related audiobooks

    Children's Family For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      AUNT MAUD’S SECRET Part 1

      Sep 1, 2021

      “WHAT! SERIOUSLY?” “Settle down, Martin,” said Ms. Phelps as she poured herself a second mug of coffee that morning. She sat down at the kitchen table, gently blowing on the steam. “Aunt Maud is so excited about her visit and really looking forward

      6 min read

    • Article

      Turn Out The Lights

      Sep 1, 2023

      Turn Out The Lights
      21 min read

    • Article

      Bad-Time Dimitri

      Feb 3, 2022

      Bad-Time Dimitri
      16 min read

    • Article

      Someone To Watch OVER ME

      May 25, 2022

      Someone To Watch OVER ME
      9 min read

    • Article

      Aunt Maud’s Secret

      Oct 1, 2021

      Martin Phelps is looking forward to spending his fall break playing Warlocks, his favorite online game, with his friends Jiang and Robert. But when his mom tells him that eighty-year-old Aunt Maude is coming for a visit and will be staying in his roo

      9 min read

    • Article

      New Term BLUES

      Sep 2, 2020

      New Term BLUES
      3 min read

    • Article

      Father Knows Best

      Aug 14, 2019

      Father Knows Best
      2 min read

    • Article

      Father Knows Best

      Aug 18, 2019

      Father Knows Best
      2 min read

    • Article

      Born Slippy

      Jan 16, 2020

      Born Slippy
      14 min read

    • Article

      What Just Happened?

      Apr 9, 2021

      What Just Happened?
      4 min read

    • Article

      Best Of The Best

      Oct 29, 2022

      Best Of The Best
      8 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 12, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      Welcome to Reliance

      Dec 1, 2021

      Welcome to Reliance
      11 min read

    • Article

      Rag Doll

      May 3, 2018

      Rag Doll
      11 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Mar 4, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 9, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cupboard LOVE

      Jul 26, 2023

      Cupboard LOVE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Rediscover THIS DAY

      Apr 1, 2021

      Rediscover THIS DAY
      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Toni, It’s Mum. There’s Been An Accident’

      Oct 13, 2021

      Edited extract from Lost & Found: My story of heartbreak and hope by Toni Street with Sophie Neville Like many teenage boys, Stephen loved sport and he loved hanging out with his mates. But he was happiest out on the farm with Dad. They were a tight

      11 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Apr 21, 2022

      It Happened to Me…
      8 min read

    • Article

      It Just Screams POSH!

      Feb 23, 2021

      In a world of Zoom, Skype and FaceTime calls, we all know more about one another’s homes than we ever thought possible. Bored with the chat? Check out the books/wallpaper/light fitting/ mess in the background. It’s especially fun when it’s a celeb on

      1 min read

    • Article

      The DATING GAME

      Aug 3, 2022

      The DATING GAME
      8 min read

    • Article

      WINNERS APRIL 2023 STORY CONTEST Pet

      Sep 1, 2023

      Danah Jang, age 10Westlake, OH Finn, the Goat Picasso I had a tawny-colored goat named Finn. I raised him after finding him in the fields. He was in poor condition, calling out with miserable, piercing wails. The heart-melting scene convinced me to

      9 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for We Dream of Space

    4/5

    108 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I loved this book so much you should read it!
    • 3/5
      A bittersweet story of how the Challenger disaster helps a dysfunctional family get some things together. The narration was great, I kind of wanted something a little more from the story.
    • 4/5
      My favorite part of the book was when the two brothers took their sister outside and had dinner in the backyard. I have a love for science. I also believe that space is a great place for exploration. The author also did a good job!
    • 4/5
      Taking place in the course of one month, this book follows three siblings (a pair of twins, and their older brother who has to repeat a grade) as their teacher explores outer space with them in the lead-up to the Challenger shuttle launch. This book was extremely well-written, as is to be expected with anything by Erin Entrada Kelly, with the space theme providing a throughline. The characters seem believable, but unfortunately very few of them are likable. The only one I truly rooted for was Bird, while her brothers were just okay as protagonists. Meanwhile, I absolutely hated their parents, so much so that I would occasionally stop reading the book to look up and say how much I couldn’t stand the parents to whomever happened to be near. The dysfunctional family is clearly a big part of the book, and its (lack of) conclusion, but I feel that the author wasn’t strong enough in her language to explain to young readers that this situation was not good. The family is not abusive or other super red flags that I think even young children would get, but the parents’ toxic arguments in front of their children, general lack of concern about their children’s whereabouts, and their diminishing language about women and girls (from not suited for careers to needing to watch their weight) is simply awful. I couldn’t get past it enough to enjoy the book or want to recommend it to others.
    • 5/5
      We Dream of Space is about three siblings, Cash, and twins Fitch and Bird Nelson Thomas and the few weeks leading up to the Challenger launch in 1986. Cash is the older brother who got held back a year and is now in 7th grade with his younger siblings. He struggles with finding what he's good at and finding the drive to get there. Fitch loves spending time at the arcade but is struggling with explosive anger issues he doesn't understand. Meanwhile Bird is worried she's disappearing and wonders what it means to be a girl who likes science and taking apart things in a world where girls should be skinny and pretty.

      I absolutely loved the siblings in this book. All three had their own struggles.

      Middle school is a hard time in life because you're just starting out really trying to figure out who you are in the world and what is it you want. No one expects you to know what you're doing, but you think you need to. Cash really struggled with that in this book and my heart broke for him. I know what it was like doing something my whole life up to that point and then realizing that's just not it.

      Fitch grappled with anger issues, but unfortunately he didn't really have anyone to talk with about it and he struggled with the balance. It didn't help that the Nelson Thomas parents were incredibly dysfunctional, so much so that I wished they'd get a divorce to save the pain of the children.

      Oh Bird. I wanted to wrap Bird up with tons of blankets and give her all the machines to take apart and reassemble to her heart's desire. Bird was so smart and creative and she had a hard time seeing her inner beauty around her classmates and even her family. She wanted to be the first female shuttle commander at NASA but also wanted to be accepted by those around her.

      The writing in this novel was beautifully done in third person and captured all three siblings amazingly. It even shows the multiple dynamics of families and the impact it can have on children growing up. Erin Entrada Kelly is a wonderful storyteller and this book shows it.
    • 4/5
      A month in the life of three siblings in early 1986, in the days leading up to the Challenger explosion. Cash, Fitch, and Bird all have their various troubles negotiating the everyday unhappinesses of middle school, and their constantly-fighting parents make home life equally unwelcome. Bird is the steadiest of them all - she's smart and quiet and more excited than any of the other middle schoolers about the upcoming shuttle launch, since she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. Her brothers don't realize just how much of an anchor she is for them until things go horribly wrong with the Challenger and her own world turns upside down.Hm. I'm torn about this one. It's very well written and impressive on several levels, but it's also too heavily depressing. Kelly dwells too long on the children's unhappiness, I think, before starting to turn the story on it's too-slight upward slope at the end. I get what she's doing here, and for some I'm sure it works well (clearly, as it won a Newbery Honor this year), but for me she's just a little too heavy-handed with the gloom.
    • 4/5
      This book is kind of a gut punch. It's a window in time in a family's life from January 1, 1986 - February 1, 1986. The narrative alternates perspectives between the three middle school children in Thomas family, Bird, Fitch, and Cash. They each have their own problems and their parents' loathing of each other isn't making any of it easier. Bird aspires to be an astronaut and go into space. This month is the lead up to the Challenger launch. Cash has been held back a year in school and feels like he is searching for the thing he's good at. Fitch has such rage simmering beneath the surface and wants to make the things he does to hurt other right. Bird is struggling with her place in the world. This book and these characters are going to stay with me for awhile.
    • 5/5
      Loved every bit of this, Bird quickly earned a place on my list of all-time favorite characters.It’s 1986, three siblings, twelve year old twins Fitch and Bird, and thirteen year old Cash, they’re essentially estranged from each other even though they’re living under the same roof, they’re pretty much on their own in navigating the struggles of growing up while their parents constantly argue and rarely nurture, and the ill-fated Challenger prepares for lift-off. Cash having failed the previous year is now in the same grade as his siblings, he’s in danger of failing a second time and while the story doesn’t go in deep on his academic troubles it certainly captures his emotional state, the embarrassment, the floundering, his longing to excel at something, to feel good about himself. Fitch is the most challenging of the three leads to feel for, he has anger issues, he cruelly lashes out at several characters including his sister Bird, which considering how much I loved her might have been a deal breaker for me with Fitch if not for the fact that he does have remorse, he is more vulnerable than he lets on, he is self-aware, he knows when when his temper’s bubbling up, he does try to control it, it’s just that sometimes it’s like this runaway train he doesn’t yet have the tools to stop which is pretty understandable given his age and also his parents’ behavior. And then there’s Bird, I adored her schematics, her smarts, her ambitions to lead a shuttle mission, her imagination, her simple sweet longing for her family to sit down to a meal together. She’s this lovely, bright, lonely, sensitive kid, who has a really tough time shaking other people’s comments and when she’s crushed you just wish you could reach out and hug her. With the Challenger figuring quite largely in the story, especially in Bird’s story, I expected a certain amount of sadness towards the end of this one and there definitely was that, still, this book ended on a wonderfully warm yet realistic note, everything isn’t perfect, all their problems, especially in their home aren’t resolved, but the siblings are in a better place than where they started.
    • 4/5
      Author Kelly is almost as keenly perceptive as Kevin Henkes of the inner life of children. In alternating perspectives Cash and the younger twins Fitch and Bird are each dealing with their own personal challenges plus the animosity between their parents. Cash is a year behind in school, unmotivated, and feeling he's not good at anything. Fitch loves being at the arcade playing his favorite games; he's not much concerned about girl/boy drama and who likes whom. His friend Vern teases him about a girl liking Fitch and when Fitch angrily insults her, the act tears him apart. Bird, like her teacher Ms Salonga, is looking forward to the Challenger shuttle launch. She loves space and science but a couple of thoughtless comments by classmates begin to undermine her confidence in her dreams. Readers will see elements of themselves in this thoughtful and sensitive work.