Space Case

Space Case | Science Fiction | Stuart Gibbs | Texas Bluebonnet; New York Times; Edgard Award | ages 9-12 |

Fast forward to year 2040, Dashiell Gibson, a twelve year old boy who lives in the moon among other scientist families, as part of a NASA program, tells the story of what it's like living in the not so spectacular new home in the moon. He reveals the ugly reality that living in the moon isn't as fun as they made it sound, and he dreads to go home. One day, he overheard a conversation between Dr. Holtz and a mysterious somebody, hours before he died in an accident. Or so everybody believed this is what happened. Dash began having suspicions that Dr. Holtz was forced to walk out the shuttle and die. Nobody seemed to believe someone would do this, so unraveling the true cause of death of Dr. Holtz laid on Dash's hands and two friends he makes in space. After hard work and research, Dash is able to reveal who murdered Dr. Holtz- the maintenance man who secretly is a spy who wanted to keep Dr. Holtz quiet about his new discovery of intelligent life from space. And when hope seems lost, that they were not able to see this discovery, Dash realizes he has met this new life form and makes an agreement to work together.

This a great read, leaving the audience at the edge of the seat as each chapter brings us closer to discovering the truth. I had so much fun reading this book and playing the visuals in my head as I read, that I'm sure students would love it as well, which is why I would use this book in the classroom. I'd say this book is for grade levels third to seventh grade. It's a perfect example of science fiction at a children's level, with great plot twists. Throughout the book, I kept making inferences and students can do so as well. Since it's a mystery book, this can be a great practice for stopping, using context clues, and make assumptions or inferences of what will happen next. This book can also be used as a template for students to make their own version of what they think the future of science would look like. One more idea, which is pretty common, is having created a scavenger hunt, and after solving a certain answer, a clue is given, leading them to solve a mystery.