Content area
Full Text
Starclimber. Kenneth Oppel. Toronto, ON: HarperCollins, 2008. 356 pp., hardcover, $21.99. ISBN 978-0-00-200745-0.
Grades 7-11 / Ages 12-16.
Review by Sylvia Pantaleo.
Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.
excerpt:
"Our government, " Sir John resumed, "has entered into a joint venture with the Lundari Corporation to explore outer space."
I leaned forward so quickly I nearly toppled out of my chair. I looked at Kate in amazement, then back at Sir John. "I didn't even know the Canadians had a space program!"
"We've been keeping it all hush-hush. We're in the lead and we intend to stay there."
Matt Cruse's summer employment involves his piloting the Atlas, an aerotug that is delivering construction materials to the site of the Celestial Tower - a structure being built by the French that will be reach into outer space. A group known as the Babelites want to sabotage the Celestial Tower, and a few men attempt to use the Atlas as a bomb. However, Matt successfully thwarts the terrorists' plan. Although late for his date with Kate de Vries, Matt manages to connect with her, and they travel to the observatory. While viewing the star that Matt purchased Kate for her birthday, they observe some strange lights in the sky.
The next day during Kate's lecture on aerozoans, the creatures she found on the Hyperion in the second novel, Skybreaker,...