All that being said, I enjoyed The Jamie Drake Equation quite a lot, and would highly recommend it to any science-minded middle schooler.

Packed with astrophysics, emotion and invention on a galactic scale, this is science fiction at its most moving and exciting. The Jamie Drake equation is a really exciting and moving account of a boy who has a father as an astronaut. As someone who has never been particularly interested in science fiction, this book may have pulled me over to the other side. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Though it sounds like an abstract mathematical concept, we see the examples of Fibonacci numbers in nature.A son of two scientists, it's only natural that Albie uses quantum theory when his mum dies, to find a parallel universe where she's still alive. The story moves along at a good pace keeping the reader engaged and eager to find out what happens next. Edge creates a number of well-drawn primary and secondary characters, including Buzz, a complex collective being… Jamie’s first-person narrative will draw readers into the story and surprise them with twists along the way as its space-age realism bends toward science fiction. The fact that Jamie's parents are struggling and that everything is not as perfect as it might seem adds to the book's accessibility and makes it easy for readers to relate to some of Jamie's feelings of fear and disappointment.

I wish I had this book to explain some of the grittier details of astronomy to me when I was a freshman in college. This is the second middle grade book in a row, at least the third that I can remember off the top of my head, where the young boy doesn't ever really have to process his emotions or complete his character arc in any meaningful way because aliens arrive (or another mythical creature or scientific device) and intervene, making his problems go away on their own. While he might sometimes seem to be selfish, there's no denying that it's hard to have your father so far away on your birthday. Jaime's experience in the book is exactly what they were striving for, but not without the same respectful fear of potentially unpleasant outcomes if aliens actually "answered the phone.Edge presents Jamie’s conflicting emotions with great effect and at times the plot will tug at heart strings or force a wry smile. Whilst not a genre I would normally read in MG fiction, he manages to weave modern and accurate scientific theories through a compelling tale and real characters going through everyday struggles. Your words, like your reviews, bring books to life and give them a voice before the front cover is even turned. Thereafter, we’re launched into space with Jamie’s dad, while recognising his grief at sharing and thereafter seeming to lose his father so publicly.

Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. The storyline gave us the opportunity to produce some wonderful and inspiring Literacy work, and I would recommend this book to any upper KS2 teacher. But when something goes wrong with his dad’s mission, Jamie knows it is up to him to save his dad from space and all of it’s dangers. Speculative science fiction isn't a genre I'm necessarily a huge fan of—I like to pick things apart too much—but The Jamie Drake Equation offers a possibility for alien contact that doesn't seem wholly unreasonable. After the amazing The Many Worlds of Albie Bright , Christopher Edge would easily be forgiven for a less ambitious follow-up.

However, Jamie’s made of the sort of determined intelligence such as we saw in The Many Worlds of Albie Bright. Jamie Drake’s dad is orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station and Jamie ought to think it’s cool but he just really misses him… Hanging out at his local observatory, Jamie picks up a strange signal on his phone.