Well, this book wasn't what I was expecting! I saw it on many elementary shelves and it certainly isn't for the elementary or even middle school level of readers. Definitely high school. I liked the book, but I was expecting something sci-fi, it most assuredly was not. ( )

Brilliant. Beautiful, dramatic, intense, and funny. Also, definitely YA, not MG.

I loved Tycho. His family bites, but he'll survive, & eventually thrive. Common sense is tidy... actual truth wobbles and hides,"... [he was] beginning to enjoy his ideas, all the more because he believed them, and putting them into words gave him power over them." ( )

Two teenagers, Angela and Tycho, are in their last days of high school.
They're unlikely friends - Angela is tall, popular, confident, and Tycho is not. Yet they are friends, and it is Tycho whom Angela turns to when she decides to meet her father for the first time.

The Catalogue of the Universe is about relationships, but more specifically, it is about romantic relationships and the illusions of romance. Angela has grown up knowing her father only through her mother's stories; Tycho's older sister is threatening to leave her husband, to the dismay of their family.
Tycho and Anegla's changing relationship unfolds against the background of their own family relationships, and what their families have to say about Tycho and Angela's friendship.

It is also about names and the importance of names - there's something insightful to say here, but I'm not sure how to say it without spoilers - and the effects of labels and body image.

And it's by Margaret Mahy, so it is gorgeously written - poetic description and clever dialogue.

I really liked it but I wish it were longer. (Alas, it was published in 1985, when publishers still thought young people wouldn't read long books.) ( )

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book. First of all, there were a lot of adjectives. Now I don't mean the author described things a lot, I mean that every other word was an adjective... It was very distracting. But really that is my only qualm.

The story was good, a bit slow to start for my taste, but when it kicked in I really liked it. There was a lot of talking about Philosophers and metaphysics but not at a level that students/young adults couldn't understand. I really felt that how it was handled would cause the reader to look up the philosopher instead of just passing the paragraph over so that is good.

Also I loved the ending (I don't want to spoil it).

Overall it was a fun and quick read! ( )

I love this weird little story. She is so good at detailed, real-seeming characters and places. ( )