Seventh Grade Vs. The Galaxy by Joshua S. Levy

Available March 5, 2019 from Lerner Publishing Group

Jack is your typical seventh grader except that his school is anything but typical.  Jack attends PSS 118, a middle school that is currently orbiting Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.  

That’s right-middle school in space!

What could possibly go wrong when you put several hundred middle school aged children on  a ship in space? Just the ship suddenly launching into light speed and being attacked by mysterious aliens who are intent on brainwashing all the students and placing them in prison.

Are all of the highly dedicated and highly trained teachers going to save the day? Of course not! This is a middle grade science fiction adventure-the kids are going to save the day!

Jack’s dad was the science teacher on board the ship until he was caught making modifications to the ship’s engines without permission.  With the ship under attack, Jack discovers that those engine modifications weren’t the only thing that Jack’s dad altered. He also gave Jack special access to the computers in case of emergency.  It’s with this new discovery, and the help of his amazing friends, that Jack will try to save his classmates and teachers from the evil Minister.

This book was a lot of fun-there’s tons of action, snarky attitude, friendship drama, and crabby lunch lady robots.  I found Jack to be a very relatable character. He has a mom who left the family, is being bullied at school because of a mistake his father made, and is trying to find his place in the world.  All of this stress has placed a strain on his friendships with Ari and Becka and their relationships are tested over and over.

There is a lot that goes on this book that will interest young readers.  There’s time travel, alien shopping malls, and even an alien arcade. I really enjoyed the crabby lunch lady robots and their constant complaints about working conditions.  

This was a great story.  If you have a young reader who would be interested in this title, you can get a copy here:

Full disclosure time:  I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley.  Thank you to Netgalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this title.