The Jamie Drake Equation

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You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing...after all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die...By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.” Overall, the Jamie Drake Equation is a well written short novel, ideal for younger readers who might be interested in science, aliens and space travel. Edge includes lots of science tidbits for young readers to chew on and includes short chapter called The Science of The Jamie Drake Equation where he examines some of the science in the novel. Also the author depicts the destruction of the International Space Station, which gets hit by an immense solar storm and plummets to the earth. As a space nerd I was honestly aghast at this development. And a little miffed at the author’s cavalier treatment of it.

That being said, this book was full of fun STEM-iness. We learn about the Jamie Drake Equation, we learn about the fibonacci sequence and more space science. But there is also the sci-fi element of the alien’s and Jamie’s interactions with them. My mind was a messy attic, with snippets of my interviews and different rumors jumbling in my head. This story reminded me very much of Tim Peake while he was in space. His interactions with school children created a lot of excitement. The author successfully portrayed this and the main character’s conflict with this new-found fame. Jamie Drake is your average boy with one big exception, his dad is an astronaut on the international space station and he is part of a big mission to find life in outer space. Jamie is very proud of his dad but he misses him a lot, especially with his birthday coming up and his dad missing it. Edge balances the eerie and the emotional to offer accessible science fiction even when the science itself is inexplicable.”— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s BooksJamie's father is a world famous astronaut who is on a mission on the International Space Station. The day his father is to launch important probes to seek out intelligent life in a distant system, happens also to be Jamie's birthday. Jamie not only has to share his father with the world, but he also has to share his birthday with an important event as well. His father's busy and demanding career means that Jamie doesn't get much time with him. When he tries to talk to his father about what's happening on his phone, his father doesn't believe him and thinks he's making it up to get his attention. When Jamie needs his father the most to help him solve a problem in HIS life his father isn't there for him. "Dad has always said I can tell him anything - any problem I've got, any worry I have, and he'll help me to sort it out....All I need is for Dad to believe me and then he'll be able to tell me what to do." A trip to the local library is a bit like going on a treasure hunt. You never know when you will find your next great read. Recently, one book in the kids fiction section caught my attention. The book was called “The Jamie Drake equation”. It was written by Christopher Edge. I’ve never heard that name before. But the book’s title promised an alien story and I was intrigued. I decided to give it a go. And you know what? I loved it! The author blended the “just right” amount of science into his story to make an exciting and educational book. The plot Jamie’s dad is an astronaut.This is a good thing, because how cool is that? And a bad thing, because he’s orbiting Earth and Jamie misses him badly.

Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry. During his math test Jamie somehow mentally connects to the aliens. As he answers the last “create your own equation” question, he accidentally writes what turns out to be the first line of The Standard Model. The Standard Model is the mindblowing theory that describes all the elementary particles and how they interact. It is sometimes called “the theory of nearly everything”. My instant reaction is that this book does for middle grade fiction what the Big Bang Theory does for sitcoms – it brings science to life. In fact, the book is bursting with scientific and mathematical concepts. Even the title of the book brought a smile to my face with it play on an existing scientific concept. Now some of the concepts introduced are quite complex, but Edge’s narrative presents these in an easy to understand manner. As such, I can see children being enthralled by concepts such as the Fibonacci Sequence and Drake’s Equation. I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” J.R. TolkienWith solid science and believable family conflicts, this will be very satisfying to readers whose wishful thinking can suspend disbelief. With his dad gone, Jamie doesn’t know who to turn to and decides to investigate himself. But when something goes wrong with his dad’s mission, Jamie knows it is up to him to save his dad from space and all of it’s dangers. Astronaut Drake launches “Light Swarm Probes” that can travel almost as fast as the light. The prototype for the Swarm probes is the Starshot project. It is currently just the idea to explore space using nano probes on laser beam sails . The project is open to the public and experts. We are all welcome to help solve the technical difficulties and make the technology real! My only real complaint was with the characterization. Jamie is a pretty generic character. We don't get to know him beyond some basic stuff, such as his relationship with his dad and the fact that he's bad at math. Because of this, he is easy to project yourself onto, which I suppose is useful for younger readers trying to see themselves in Jamie's story, but it also made it seem like Jamie could have been replaced by really any other sixth-grade boy. I was also hoping for more of a friendship to develop between Minty and Jamie, but she really didn't serve much purpose in the story at all. Overall, it felt like a very interesting plot plugged in with a bunch of random people.