Our children’s Book of the Month for March is the deep space science ficition book, Orion Lost by debut author Alastair Chisholm. What would the book club make of the dark side of the moon?
Orion Lost – the blurb
The transport ship Orion is four months out of Earth when catastrophe strikes – leaving the ship and everyone on board stranded in deep space. Suddenly it’s up to thirteen-year-old Beth and her friends to navigate through treacherous and uncharted territory to reach safety. But a heavily-damaged ship, space pirates, a mysterious alien species, and an artificial intelligence that Beth doesn’t know if she can trust means that getting home has never been so difficult.
+++ This review contains spoilers and should only be read if you have read the book already!+++
First time in space
So it was the book club’s first time in space, and actually mine when it came to middle grade reading. I say middle grade, I think in actual fact the book is targeted at upper middle grade/lower young adult. There isn’t anything in that is inappropriate but there is a bit of space tech and the book is quite chunky (360 pages) so if you don’t have a confident reader on your hands maybe wait six months or so.
We all immediately liked the idea of being on a space ship. The girls took to main character Beth straight away, the boys didn’t mind in the slightest reading about a girl due to the setting.
Gripping
Let me tell you, we were hooked. All of us. I binged read the book in three days fitting in chapters whilst stirring spaghetti and waiting for dance classes to finish. Most of the children finished within the 4 weeks and I was really impressed with their reading. They wanted to get it finished because they were enjoying it so much. Was Ship an enemy? Where was Captain Kier? Would Beth make a good Captain? So many questions, so many twists!
What we did
We actually talked (well shouted over the top of each other) about where we were up to in the book and about what we thought was happening next. We had a go at designing our own space ships trying to work out what we would need to survive (lots of vending machines and a table tennis set apparently) but this wasn’t really a book for extra activities. It was a book to enjoy, to devour, to savour the unravelling.
Orion Lost was brilliantly plotted, fast paced and action packed. I loved it, so did the children. We awarded it 5 out of 5 Jumps!
Book Club questions
- Orion Lost is set in space which is an unusual setting for a children’s book. Have you read a book set in space before? Did you like the setting?
- When we first meet Beth she is setting out on a seven month journey to help colonize a new planet, never to see Earth again. Do you think this is something humans will end up doing? Would you like to move to a new planet?
- The child crew make a lost of mistakes and we learn that Beth chooses to put the children into Sleep to start over again when all has gone wrong. Do you think Beth was right to prevent the children from regaining these memories? Were they able to learn from their mistakes even if they couldn’t remember them?
- Beth chooses to help the small Videshi ship but the Orion Jumps before she can find out the larger Videshi ships intentions. Do you think the ‘mother’ ship would have harmed the Orion? Do you think it was trying to say thank you?
- Beth doubts herself several times in the book about her ability to be a good Captain. Do you think she is a good Captain? Do you think she will become a Captain when she is older?
- We last see Captain Kier in an escape pod with Captain Murdoch being asked whether she wants to collect him or not. What do you think happens to Captain Kier?
If you would like to join in with our Children’s Book of the Month keep your eyes peeled when we announce April’s book in a few days time, Our review with book club questions is usually posted on the last Monday of the month and you can check out previous book of the months such as SheWolf by Dan Smith by clicking on the Young Adult/Kids button at the top of our Home Page.