The Jamie Drake Equation

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Although Edge moves well into science fiction to resolve the disaster facing Jamie's dad in space, the conclusion is both heartwarming and satisfying. Jamie's relationship with an alien being he names Buzz is reminsicent of E.T. It turns out Buzz is an alien life form that calls itself the Hi'ive. They had to choose between their bodies and their minds, moving beyond the physical world, becoming energy. In this form Buzz can both help Jamie and be helped by Jamie.

This book is very emotional for a middle school read. That’s not a bad thing, but there’s this almost Armageddon feel to the end and I really don’t want to make the kids cry! We also deal with serious themes like divorce and separation, moving, fear and more. After the amazing The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, Christopher Edge would easily be forgiven for a less ambitious follow-up. Instead, he has written a novel easily as good as the one before, filled with his trademark combination of wit, pathos and hilarity. Booktrust 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”. I am not going to tell you how this story ends. But I want to mention the episodes in the book in which fantastic science facts are hiding.

Escape Room

Edge has found the equation that solves the problem of how to write a fun, intellectually challenging novel with an emotional center.”— The Times (UK) The Jamie Drake Equation was one I was considering for my 4-6th grade STEM book club. It was a good read and would have given us a lot to talk about but I just didn’t think we had enough copies in our library system to make it work. When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.

With solid science and believable family conflicts, this will be very satisfying to readers whose wishful thinking can suspend disbelief. 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. Tolkien The very same astronomer tells the boy about The Drake Equation. The Drake Equation is the very famous formula. It describes how many alien civilizations there are in our Milky Way Galaxy which we can possibly communicate with. Unfortunately, the equation does not give an exact number, as we cannot accurately estimate most of its parameters (such as, for example, “how many planets that could support life have actually developed life”).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 once read in my physics book that the universe begs to be observed, that energy travels and transfers when people pay attention. Maybe that's what love really boils down to -- having someone who cares enough to pay attention so that you're encouraged to travel and transfer, to make your potential energy spark into kinetic energy. Maybe all anyone ever needs is for someone to notice them, to observe them." Jamie Drake’s dad is famous. He’s an astronaut, and he’s currently orbiting the earth on the International Space Station, about 400kms above the planet’s surface. Soon he will launch a series of tiny interstellar probes, which will search the galaxy for signs of alien life. What could possibly go wrong? During the assembly Jamie finds himself becoming increasingly angry, especially since his father and mother are divorcing. "Is this what life is going to be like now? Sharing my dad with a roomful of strangers and getting my birthday presents secondhand? Having everyone think that Dad's some kind of superhero, when really he's tearing our family apart?" His angry outburst at the assembly is an expression of the sadness and sense of loss he is experiencing over his parents' divorce.

Jamie'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." Jamie’s first-person narrative will draw readers into the story and surprise them with twists along the way as its space-age realism bends toward science fiction.”— Booklist Nominated for the 2018 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Shortlisted for the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award, the Haringey Children’s Book Award and the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award.I especially loved the professor Jamie meets as well as his teacher at school. I think I just like when adults in books are good examples to kids and also don't treat younger people like they're stupid. That one part when the professor starts explaining complicated math to Jamie and is like, you follow me, yeah? And he's like (LOL NO) yeah yeah, so what's next? 😂 She just goes on like surely this small child understands my explanation of advanced math. Moving on. I don't think I'm explaining this well, but I definitely liked it. And I liked how his teacher finds lots of encouraging things to say to her students when they're doing creative projects! My mind was a messy attic, with snippets of my interviews and different rumors jumbling in my head.