Eyes on the Sky

August 12, 2024
When their parents’ deaths force 12-year-old Dorothy Duncan’s older brother Dwight to leave the Army to care for her, impulsive, science-minded Dorothy worries that she’s cost him an impressive military career. The bickering and resentful siblings live on a dusty, rundown ranch in New Mexico, where Dwight looks for crop-dusting jobs and Dorothy tests amateur fireworks and confides in their old sheep Geraldine. After an explosion lights up the sky following the disastrous launch of her weather balloon powered by homemade hydrogen, Dorothy fears that her experiment may have brought down an aircraft from the nearby Roswell Air Force base. Enlisting the help of tween Hugo to locate the potential wreckage, Dorothy attracts the attention of shadowy FBI agents and, upon discovering a mysterious object in a cave glowing with otherworldly flora, begins to wonder if the government is covering up something extraterrestrial. Though it’s slow to start, this historical tale by Kramer (The List of Unspeakable Fears) soon takes off with the incorporation of science fiction elements, and the meticulous, expertly rendered 1947 desert setting enhances its thrilling conclusion. Main characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary.

September 15, 2024
Unexplained flying objects cause chaos in post-World War II Roswell, New Mexico. Twelve-year-old Dorothy Duncan is accustomed to finding solace in the sky. Several years ago, when Ma was sick, Pa was ineffectually pursuing get-rich plans, and older brother Dwight was a trainee pilot in the Army Air Forces, Dorothy took to climbing the dilapidated windmill on her family's forlorn ranch and firing rockets into the air. Now, with her parents dead and her brother resentful about being forced to come home to care for her, she's grown more reckless. She launches a weather balloon in a thunderstorm--and two subsequent explosions make her fear that she's accidentally brought down a plane from the nearby Roswell military base. When Dorothy and her schoolmate Hugo Martinez search the desert for potentially identifiable wreckage, they find otherworldly debris--and curious Dorothy takes something that the strangers want back. Part gritty historical fiction, partThe War of the Worlds, the novel uses adventure and science fiction to make some pointed observations about the effects of war. Some characters feel less fully rounded and slightly more like plot devices, but Dorothy, Hugo, and the place they call home are vividly rendered. Most characters are cued white or Latine. A courageous hero and some unexpected twists make for a compelling read. (author's note)(Fiction. 8-12)

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