A powerful debut novel in verse about a neurodivergent seventh grader who dreams of traveling to the stars one day. 'This story is about a boy who is certain of his own magic in the midst of the doubtful adults around him. A kid who knows not even the sky, but the stars are the limit. Which makes Paulino's debut...extraordinary.' --Jason Reynolds, author of National Book Award finalist Look Both Ways and Newbery Honor Book Long Way Down Seventh-grade Alex's favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos of rocket launches with his Papi and spending hours on the NASA website reading about astronauts and planets. He even dreams of going to space one day himself, and knows he'll have to study hard in order to get there. But Alex is in his grade's SC (self-contained) classroom, which means doing the same dull worksheets every day and reading books his sister read back in the third grade. Worst of all, being in SC means nobody thinks he's ready to join Ms. Rosef's mainstream science