Greetings from Planet Earth
By Barbara Kerley
Bibliography: Kerley, B. (2007). Greetings from Planet Earth. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Summary: Greetings from Planet Earth is the story of a boy named Theo searching for identity. It is 1977 and Theo's family lives with the fact that his father never came back from Vietnam. There are two rules in their household, 1) Never talk about their father and 2) Pretend like everything is ok. THeo is given an assignment in school related to NASA's Voyager 2 mission. They are to make a one minute tape recording of what the most important thing about planet Earth is and bring a picture. What seems a simple assignment soon turns into a quest for answers as Theo seeks information that he has been denied for years. Theo wants to know his father, the war that took him away, and why his family shrouds itself in lies and secrecy.
Impressions: I flew through this book starting and finishing it in a single day. I was moved by Theo's story and search for answers. The setting was historical and reflected life in 1977 America while filling it with fictional characters. I admired Theo's hunt for the truth and cheered when he turned to the library for answers. I think that this is ultimately a story about both the good and bad parts of humanity. This theme is reflected in the narrative changes between Theo's search for his father and more information about the Vietnam war and his obsession with space and the moon. The former describes war and the terrible acts that mankind can inflict upon itself while the latter shows the heights that mankind can achieve once we decide to accomplish something.
Review:
Kirkus Reviews
The upcoming Voyager 2 space probe sparks 12-year-old Theo’s discoveries about life on earth in 1977. His teacher, Mr. Meyer, decides that the class should put together a golden record for the Voyager to share with any aliens encountered. Each kid in the class has to contribute the sounds of what they consider the best thing on earth. Theo’s close family consists of a busy mother, his older sister Janet and grandmother JeeBee, who lives nearby in their Virginia suburb. The absence of his father begins to ache like a sore tooth, and Theo’s exploration of his world, as he tries to figure out his contribution, gradually discovers inconsistencies and strange messages that he’s never really put into a logical sequence before. Finding letters from Vietnam written by his dad years earlier, Theo proves capable of probes that will lead him to the truth. Kerley’s structure is in alternating transcripts of a recording for an unknown reader, and a third-person account of Theo’s life with various sections labeled with geographic place names from the moon. The space capsule assignment reveals much about earthlings, and Mr. Meyer’s insightful questioning brings a depth and universality to what is essentially one family’s struggle with the past. (Fiction. 10-14)
Library Setting:
I think that this book would work well in a middle school classroom session discussing the space race, Vietnam war, or the 1970s in general. The book has vivid descriptions of family life at the time and moments like the Voyager 2 departure and Life magazine that make the setting come alive. I think that this book could also be used in conjunction with some newer more modern books or books about World War II to help explain what the wars did to society and families during those time periods. I think that sometimes in school we only get the broad view of "we won" or "fought for a noble purpose" I think it is important to impress upon children what we lost as well
Reference Review: Kirkus Review. (2010, May 20). Greetings from planet earth review. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/barbara-kerley/greetings-from-planet-earth/
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