Penny, The Review Group's reviewer Penny for Your ThoughtsThe Review Group
Children's ✦ Penny’s Take

We Dream of Space

Erin Entrada Kelly · 2020
90/100
👍 Worth It

A 2021 Newbery Honor from an author who already has a Newbery Medal on her shelf, and the distinction is fully earned. Three sibling voices — each fully inhabitable, each carrying distinct grief and ambition — build toward the Challenger disaster with the kind of emotional precision that makes middle-grade fiction matter. The family dysfunction is painful in the best literary sense, and Bird's astronaut dream woven through Judith Resnik's real story is quietly devastating. One of the finest middle-grade novels of recent years.

✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety82
substance92
craft94
originality86
accuracy90
hype76
age-fit82
human-eye93
Penny’s verdict90
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