This stellar debut about losing and finding family, forging unlikely friendships, and searching for answers to big questions will resonate with fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead.

The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her father is building rockets with him. When he unexpectedly dies, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together.

Benjamin Burns doesn’t like science, but he can’t get enough of Spacebound, a popular comic book series. When he finds a sketch that suggests his father created the comics, he’s thrilled. Too bad his father left years ago and Benji has no way to contact him.

Though Ro and Benji were only ever supposed to be science fair partners, the pair become unlikely friends, with Ro even figuring out a way to reunite Benji and his father. But Benji hesitates, which makes Ro angry. Doesn’t he realize how much Ro wishes she were in his shoes?

As the two navigate bullying, grief, and their own differences, Benji and Ro try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.