Learning to Swear in America
By Andrea Beach,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Engaging blend of romance, sci-fi, and culture clash.
A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this book.
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What's the Story?
LEARNING TO SWEAR IN AMERICA is about 17-year-old Russian physics prodigy Yuri Strelnikov, who's suddenly whisked off to Pasadena to help NASA figure out a way to prevent an asteroid from hitting Earth. They have three weeks to find a solution or the western half of the United States will be obliterated. Although he's constantly watched and chauffeured from his hotel to the lab and back again, he happens to meet the fiercely free-spirited Dovie, a high school junior. Through Dovie, Yuri gets to know a quirky American family, who help him understand there's more to life than the Nobel Prize. Yuri has no doubt that his unpublished work on antimatter containment is the key to eliminating the asteroid, but no one else at the lab agrees. When he's unable to change minds, he secretly replaces codes and calculations to implement his plan without anyone else knowing. Will the plan work, and if it does, will Yuri be able to live with the consequences?
Is It Any Good?
Katie Kennedy's debut novel is engaging, funny, romantic, and suspenseful, and it introduces us to a quirky but likable hero in Russian teen Yuri Strelnikov. Yuri's awkwardness, loneliness, and desire to fit in make it surprisingly easy to relate to a boy genius who, let's face it, is also a bit full of himself. Dovie and her oddball family show us and Yuri that life, and the great big world out there, have so much to offer those who reach out to it.
Some events are a bit too coincidental, but readers who can just accept the premise and let themselves go along with Learning to Swear in America will be rewarded. Yuri's an unusual kind of hero, and readers may be surprised to find themselves rooting for him so easily. The well-structured plot keeps the pages turning and builds to an exciting finish that doesn't end where you think it will.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about swearing. Do you think it's realistic in Learning to Swear in America? Why is it such an important concept for Yuri?
Is it OK to do something wrong to do right? What if you don't know how it will turn out?
Dovie tells how the famous artist Michaelangelo came to regret his arrogance when he carved his name into his greatest statue. What does Yuri do out of the same kind of arrogance? Is getting credit for your work more important than the beauty (or scientific knowledge, or anything else) the work itself brings to the world?
Book Details
- Author: Katie Kennedy
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Topics: Friendship, Great Boy Role Models, Space and Aliens
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
- Publication date: July 5, 2016
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 13 - 17
- Number of pages: 352
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 13, 2017
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