Rie Neal

First sentence: I tapped my clock for the millionth time: 12:06 a.m. The numbers flashed off like they always did. As if they were mad I'd woken them up.

Premise/plot: Astrid, the protagonist, dreams of being the first astronaut in space with hearing aids. Space is literally all she thinks about. Okay, not fair exactly. She also emphatically wants her friend, Hallie, to be equally obsessed with space and to share the exact same hopes and dreams--Shooting Stars club, Space Camp, Space. But this third grader is to be disappointed in part. Her best friend wants art club, not the Shooting Stars. And she doesn't seem interested at all--not even a little bit--in listening to her friend talk about space. (Did she ever?) So if friendship is important to Astrid, perhaps it's time to make new friends in Shooting Stars.

My thoughts: I liked this one. It has potential. I don't regret my time reading it by any means. I would probably check out other books from the library in this series. I'm not sure I'd be terribly upset if the library didn't order them all. But it was enjoyable enough. I think future books might have more story.… (altro)

A little school drama and tons of robot fun make this an entertaining read, which is easy to enjoy.

Astrid and her friends in Shooting Stars are super excited to learn that one of the latest rages in robots has been donated to their tech-club...just in time for an upcoming competition. It so happens that their teacher also has her birthday at that time but with everything going on, has no time to celebrate. Astrid and the other come up with a way to fit all of it in with a huge surprise, but only if they can make it work.

This is the forth book in the series, but these can be read as stand-alones. Astrid is an optimistic character, who loves a tech challenge, especially if it can be connected with space. She also has a slight hearing impairment, which the author works in smoothly and doesn't allow it to define Astrid. Mostly, Astrid enjoys challenges and working with her friends. Plus, there's a nice sense of family support, especially from the older sister's side in this tale.

Readers, who have a good grip on words, won't have trouble with the vocabulary, while still being furthered in their reading skills. The font is larger for reading ease and broken up through lovely illustrations, which display the characters in a positive light. The story flows along quickly, using a nice balance between dialogue and descriptions. There's a tiny bit of imagination built in, but most of it stays pretty true to reality. There are some friendship difficulties, which reflect things readers themselves might run across, but all of these are worked out nicely. I do enjoy the mix of technology with the school life, since it does bring across the subject in a fun way, which will awake readers' interest. So, it's a nice read in many different ways.
I received an ARC and enjoyed Astrid's latest adventure...especially the robot...quite a bit.… (altro)

Astrid is excited to work on building a rocket with her after-school team, but she's too star-struck by the college intern from Space-E, Lana, to speak up when Lana's idea may not be the best one. Astrid hopes that Lana will give them a tour of Space-E, but Lana is frequently distracted with her phone, arriving late or leaving early. Astrid's teammates encourage her to speak up and use Ella's water rocket design instead of Lana's air rocket.

At home, Astrid has a similar problem born of not speaking up: her dad has made her an astronaut helmet to go with her costume for Costume Day, but it's the wrong shape and doesn't fit over her head and hearing aids. Finally, with help from her 11-year-old sister and her teammates, Astrid is able to speak up in both situations, and find solutions.

See also: Wednesday Wilson, Ada Twist… (altro)

Astronaut dreams mix with friendship and determination in a fun chapter book with a character, who promises so much more adventure to come.

Astrid and her best friend have grand plans to become astronauts, but without a single word, the best friend backs out and leaves Astrid to tackle the first year of the Shooting Stars club alone. Astrid feels like a lost asteroid but is still determined to be the best in the club and win a scholarship, although third graders are said never to win. Her hopes, though, quickly go into free-fall as she's faced with a new partner and can't seem to get a peep out of her, maybe, ex-bestie.

This is a fun tale about a girl, who has a dream and is ready to fight for it. It's very realistic as she joins the after-school space club and tries to solve the given puzzles...all which are realistic for the age group. She comes across as a very normal girl, who could be in any classroom. She does have difficulties hearing and wears as hearing aide, but that only makes her more interesting. It's by no means the main plot or aspect of the story, which made it come across extremely natural. Plus, it makes her dream that much more worth rooting for.

The story flows very smoothly and doesn't hold any boring moments. The problems never dig in overly deep, keeping it right at the intended age group's level. There are lovely illustrations peppered through the pages, which not only offer fun for readers but help bring across Astrid better. It's great for those readers, who have a good grip on words, but aren't ready to dive into even lower, middle grade reads quite yet.

Of course, there are messages of friendship, including finding new friends and accepting that interests change, but these slide right in with the rest of the tale. And there's the STEM aspect, too, with little bits of general information sprinkled in here and there. It's a great start to a new series and already has me excited to see where Astrid's journey will take her next. I received an ARC and found this to be an easy, fun read.… (altro)