Barbary (novel)
An orphan and her cat journey to a space station.
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Barbary is a 1986 science fiction novel by Vonda McIntyre. It follows a twelve-year-old orphan and her cat as she moves to a space station, and is considered one of the best science fiction stories of the decade for children and young adults.
Background
Thea builds a telescope instrument to be sent toward the alien craft, which has changed course and sent transmissions in many human languages. Mickey climbs inside the instrument package, which is launched on a sled.
Barbary and Heather chase after him in Heather's sled, and both sleds are pulled aboard the alien ship by tractor beams. The aliens, mobile crystalline columns, have traveled for a billion years and come to inform humanity of galactic rules. The novel ends with the girls returning to the station.
Did You Know?
- Barbary's foster father Yoshi is a poet and college friend of her mother.
- The alien spacecraft does not respond to communications or make powered maneuvers initially.
- The station administrator is a famous astronaut.
More in Children's science fiction novels
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Barbary (novel) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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