This adult novel was much better than the cover picture indicated! I was expecting sappy Challenger woe-is-me tale, but was impressed by the author's fictional spinning of a NASA mechanic's daughter during the 1980s.
Dolores has a younger sister she has to take care of, a mother she strongly dislikes for deserting them, and father she is embarrassed by because he isn't an engineer or "someone important" at NASA. Most of all, she struggles with becoming comfortable with herself. She gives into peer pressure a lot and acts the way she thinks the cool teenagers act. The great thing about the character is her love for physics and her determination to be an astronaut. This saves her and keeps her grounded while the rest of her world is falling apart.
Now for my Challenger story. I was 10 years old and home from school with the typical fever/sinus infection/whatever I always got at least once a school year. I was hanging out on the couch and extremely ticked that I couldn't find anything to watch on TV. Because all we got were CBS, PBS, NBC, ABC, and some Christian station, nothing was on except for footage of the crash. In my selfish, inconsiderate mind, I just wanted The Price is Right and cartoons. I couldn't wait to go back to school the next day. But, just like Sept. 11, I'll always remember what I was doing on the day the Challenger went down.
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