The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The cover art shows a young girl with brown hair standing in a green field at night. The grass is covered in blue stars. She is looking up at and reaching out an arm above her to a large blue planet. The title of the book “Planet Earth Is Blue” is written on the planet in large write capitals. The author’s name “Nicole Panteleakos” is written at the bottom of the cover in smaller white capitals. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Death
• Ableism
• Outdated/Period Correct Terminology
• Grief
• Bullying
• Confinement
• Child Abuse
• Death of A Parent
• Emotional Abuse
• Medical Content
• Death of A Sibling
• References to The Challenger explosion

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Summary:

Twelve-year-old Nova is eagerly awaiting the launch of the space shuttle Challenger–it’s the first time a teacher is going into space, and kids across America will watch the event on live TV in their classrooms. Nova and her big sister, Bridget, share a love of astronomy and the space program. They planned to watch the launch together. But Bridget has disappeared, and Nova is in a new foster home.

While foster families and teachers dismiss Nova as severely autistic and nonverbal, Bridget understands how intelligent and special Nova is, and all that she can’t express. As the liftoff draws closer, Nova’s new foster family and teachers begin to see her potential, and for the first time, she is making friends without Bridget. But every day, she’s counting down to the launch, and to the moment when she’ll see Bridget again. Because Bridget said, “No matter what, I’ll be there. I promise.”

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Notes:

This book was nominated for the 2020 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award and the 2022 Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award for Grades 6-8.

There is an audiobook.

There is an ebook. There is a kindle edition.

In the author’s note at the end, the author provides more information on both The Challenger explosion and her own history with autism.

Here is a link to Panteleakos’ website.

Here is a link to a Kirkus review of this book.

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Archivist Comments:

I kept seeing references to the plot twist of this book. Apparently it’s not too difficult to figure it out as the book progresses- some of the details are obviously unknown until the reveal- but it’s still effective nonetheless.

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