I Love You, Michael Collins

I was a little disappointed in my reading this past weekend. I had some great books started, but just didn't have time to sit around and read them. Plus, the weather was lovely, and that always makes it harder for me to justify curling up with a book instead of enjoying sometime outside.

I Love You, Michael Collins is the middle grade book I picked up after my girls were in bed last night.  I had only twenty pages left this morning to finish off.  It was a perfect read.

Set in 1969, Mamie is excited for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to walk on the moon. She and her neighbor are gearing up for the launch, and at school they have been assigned to write to one of the astronauts. Of course everyone wants to write to Aldrin and Armstrong, but Mamie decides to write to Michael Collins, the astronaut who will stay with the spaceship while his colleagues walk on the moon.  

The entire story is told in Mamie's letters to Michael Collins as she writes of her struggles as the youngest in her family.  Her older sisters have both left home and her parents are struggling a bit in their marriage as her mother tries to test out what it would be like to not have to conform to the gender stereotypes she has always grown up knowing.  

I liked everything about this novel. I liked the 1969 setting. I liked Mamie's letters to Michael Collins. I liked learning more about Apollo 11 and the day to day life surrounding that event in history.  I can only hope that Lauren Baratz-Logsted will write another fantastic middle grade novel that is such a pleasure to read.