Publisher Description
A space-obsessed boy and his dog, Carl Sagan, take a journey toward family, love, hope, and awe in this funny and moving novel for fans of Counting by 7s and Walk Two Moons. 11-year-old Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan—named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he’ll uncover—from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly not-around brother, he has way more family than he ever knew. For fans of Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jack Cheng’s debut is full of joy, optimism, determination, and unbelievable heart. To read the first page is to fall in love with Alex and his view of our big, beautiful, complicated world. To read the last is to know he and his story will stay with you a long, long time. Read by Kivlighan de Montebello and a full cast, including Brittany Pressley (as Terra), Graham Halstead (as Steve), Michael Crouch (as Ronnie), and Jason Culp (as Zed). Additional narration provided by Therese Plummer, Susan Bennett, Dan Bittner, Pete Larkin, and Courtney Shaw. 2018 Audie Award Winner: Middle Grade Audible Best Kids Audiobook of 2017 - Finalist 2017 Booklist Editors' Choice: Audios for Youth 2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Recording 2018 YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults "The premise of the book--a story told through audio recordings--is a natural fit for an audiobook, and the narrators hit it out of the park."--Booklist, starred review "Kivlighan de Montebello's engaging young voice embodies 11-year-old Alex Petroski...an altogether captivating listening experience."--AudioFile Earphones Award
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“Kivlighan de Montebello’s engaging young voice embodies eleven-year-old Alex Petroski…The episodic action—which includes narrators Brittany Pressley, Graham Halstead, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, and others as supporting characters—makes it easy to suspend disbelief and renders this an altogether captivating listening experience. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile
About the Narrators
Brittany Pressley has won several Earphones Awards as well as the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration in 2018. She has recorded over one hundred titles and has received several nominations for American Library Association’s annual list of Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults. She is also an accomplished singer-songwriter and voice actress. Her voice can be heard on national and international TV and radio commercials as well as several animated series and video games. She is a graduate of Columbia University.
Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black, Adventureland, and the Producers: The Movie Musical. He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Jason Culp, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, has been acting since the age of ten, and his credits include a variety of television, theater, and film roles. He is best known for his role as Julian Jerome on General Hospital. In addition to audiobooks and voice-over work in national commercials, he has also narrated documentaries for National Geographic and the History Channel.
Pete Larkin has narrated dozens of audiobook titles, won five Earphones Awards, and been a finalist in 2012 for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He has been praised for his expert
ability to speak in multiple accents. He is also an on-camera host and accomplished voice-over artist for hundreds of commercials and promos for a variety of companies, corporations, and governmental agencies. He was the public address announcer for the New York Mets and has worked as a radio jockey in New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.
Susan Bennett, Earphones Award-winning narrator, has enjoyed an extensive career as a vocal artist. She has worked with major agencies on such accounts as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, AT&T, Blue Cross, Goodyear, and Club Med. She also dabbles in the music industry as the singer and keyboardist for The Interactive! Band. Along with her guitarist husband, Rick Hinkle, she is the co-owner of Audiocam Music, a full-service recording studio.
Thérèse Plummer is an actor, award-winning voice-over artist, and counselor. She has won eighteen AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has appeared in a variety of television and film roles. As a counselor for adolescents, she spent five years using drama therapy techniques in individual and group settings.
Courtney Shaw is an actress, singer and voice-over artist who has had leads Off-Broadway, regionally, and in film. In New York City she has performed at The Jerry Orbach Theatre, The Mint, Westside Theatre, Circle in the Square, New World Stages, The Kaufman Music Center, Urban Stages, and The Brick. Courtney is a proud graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School’s two-year musical theater program. Originally from Connecticut, Courtney began acting professionally at the age of fourteen as the First Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Ivoryton Playhouse.
Graham Halstead, an Earphones Award and Audie Award–winning narrator, is a professionally trained actor and voice artist. As an actor, he has worked internationally in Edinburgh and London, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His youthful, easy-flowing voice can be heard on television and radio voicing spots for Airborne and Allegra.
Michael Crouch is an actor based in New York City. His audiobook narration has won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, and Best of the Year accolades from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He can also be heard on national commercials, cartoons, video games, and the animé series Pokémon XY and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.
Kivlighan de Montebello is a voice artist and an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator who was awarded a prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018.
R. F. Daley is an actor, voice-over artist, and audiobook narrator. His television credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bones, Dexter, The Office, Arrested Development, Boston Public, and Spin City, among many others. He has narrated numerous audiobooks by L. Ron Hubbard and was the voice of the military adviser in the video game Civilization V.