See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng is an interesting story told in an interesting way. The protagonist and narrator is eleven-year-old Alex Petroski. He sets off from his home in Colorado to attend a rocket festival in New Mexico, but then his quest morphs into a search for his “maybe dad” in Nevada.

Along the way, he records the details of his journey along with his observations and musings on a golden iPod that he intends to launch into space so that aliens can know what life on Earth is like. The novel is a transcript of these audio recordings. That fact, as well as Alex’s unique way of looking at the world, give the book an unusual style. Once I got used to it, I enjoyed it, and I expect it would be even more fun as an audiobook.

I would recommend this book more to adults than to kids, though. Because the story is told through Alex’s innocent point of view, the reader is left to infer what’s really going on in his life (for example, that his mother is suffering from a mental illness).