Space Race

Rating:
Summary: Ormingat
Review: genre: Science Fiction
Setting: Great Britain/present day

British author Waugh craftily writes of the bond of love between father and son. The narrative has a fine weave but I personally found it too long.

I rarely read science fiction. The title doesn't fit--the "race" is to make a deadline. I was engrossed by the idea of an extraterrestrial father and son posing as humans coming to the end of their "mission" and facing ambiguity to return home.

Details of extraterrestrial life struck me as scant. There is little imagination employed outside of humankind and little action. This and the British setting may make American children put it down after a few chapters.






Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but disappointing nonetheless
Review: Given that Waugh's Mennyms series is one of the finest book series of recent years--you could say "children's book series" but that would be too narrow a claim--I'd hoped that her next series would continue at the same high level. _Space Race_ is the first in her new series, the Ormingat Trilogy; I haven't read the two subsequent volumes, but one hopes they're a little better than this book, which isn't bad by any means but fatally lacking in the wit & wisdom of the Mennyms series. The basic premise is fine--the young boy Thomas Derwent is actually a visitor to Earth from another planet; when he & his father at the end of their mission on this planet attempt to return to their spaceship to leave, an unforeseen traffic accident separates them & nearly leads to disaster. It's all told in a low-key manner reminiscent of the very quietly narrated Mennyms books; but here it gets a little _too_ low-key--despite the "race" of the title, one never feels exactly breathless about the plot. The religious overtones of Waugh's fiction are pushed to the fore here, so that the stages of the boy's rescue are carefully meshed with the Christian calendar leading up to Christmas; & the prose is lightly peppered with fragments of Xmas carols & biblical quotes. It's not a bad book, but it's a bit lugubrious & while it touches on many interesting ideas they're left curiously undeveloped--for instance, Thomas has apparently spent the past 5 years meticulously observing English school-life & filing reports on it, yet the purpose of their research is left unclear & it barely figures in the novel. & the conflict between Thomas's feelings for Earth life & for returning to Ormingat is barely touched on either.

Rating:
Summary: A new book to me
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, but I kept waiting for the main characters to do something. Both the boy and the man were overwhelmingly passive--and so uninformed, that passivity was their only option.

Rating:
Summary: No destination, but an enjoyable trip
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, but I kept waiting for the main characters to do something. Both the boy and the man were overwhelmingly passive--and so uninformed, that passivity was their only option.

Rating:
Summary: A new book to me
Review: I thought that this book was a new type of book. A normal book is ussaly just something exciting happens and that is it for kids books but this book is different because I ussaly cant read a real kind of far out book and enjoy it but I enjowed this book so much. I think that Mrs.Waugh has brought on a new kind of book. The book is not one of those books about creepy aliens and all that junk, it is about real aliens witgh real feelinggs trying to get home just like any other person would do. If you like this book I would sujest reading the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Ever Read
Review: Space Race is an awesome book. So if you are and eager reader I think you will like this book too. The author, Sylvia Waugh, uses a lot of interesting words to make a great book. It is about an eight year old boy named Thomas who lived on a far away planet, Ormingat, and had to come to Earth because his dad had a job to do. Thomas makes a new friend,Mickey, so his dad tells him not to tell anyone who he really is or where he is really from.Thomas didn't listen to that and told Mickey but it is a good thing that Mickey doesn't listen to him.When the time had come the Ormingat people said they had to go back to Ormingat.Will Thomas and his dad leave or stay.If you want to find out then read Space Race.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Ever Read
Review: Space Race is an awesome book. So if you are and eager reader I think you will like this book too. The author, Sylvia Waugh, uses a lot of interesting words to make a great book. It is about an eight year old boy named Thomas who lived on a far away planet, Ormingat, and had to come to Earth because his dad had a job to do. Thomas makes a new friend,Mickey, so his dad tells him not to tell anyone who he really is or where he is really from.Thomas didn't listen to that and told Mickey but it is a good thing that Mickey doesn't listen to him.When the time had come the Ormingat people said they had to go back to Ormingat.Will Thomas and his dad leave or stay.If you want to find out then read Space Race.

Rating:
Summary: Space Race
Review: Thomas and his father Patrick have lived in Belthorp, a small village in England, for five years. Thomas has learned to be very happy there. So he isn't pleased when his father tells him that they must go back home. Thomas has come to feel at home in Belthorp. His father reminds him that they were only in Belthorp for a purpose, and that purpose has been completed now.

Thomas, an honest boy, has always been truthful with his neighbor, Mrs. Dalrymple. He told her about the space ship the size of a golf ball that he and his father traveled to Belthorp in. Of course, to fit inside it, they had to shrink down very tiny. Then, when they got out, they zoomed right back up. And Thomas told his best friend Mickey that the moon was nothing special. He and his father flew around it twice on their way to Belthorp --- a navigational error --- and he didn't know why anybody would want to go there. But somehow, Mrs. Dalrymple and Mickey just thought Thomas had a great imagination. In fact, Mickey gets mad at Thomas for telling him that he has to leave Belthorp to go back to Ormingat. He thinks Thomas should just tell
the truth, that he's really moving to Canada like Patrick says.

Thomas is angry enough at having to leave earth that he tells his father he won't do it. He's forgotten Ormingat, even the language. But his father says he has no choice.

Then something happens to change that. He can remain an earth boy, play the
youngest shepherd in the Christmas play, and live with Mrs. Dalrymple. The key to it all is within his grasp. In fact, he may not be able to leave earth. What does he feel about that?

(...)