Planet Jupiter Hardcover – May 2, 2017

There is much to love about this big-hearted novel. Eleven-year-old Jupiter is a spunky, outspoken, and perceptive heroine who will win readers' affections as she deals with the absence of her world-roaming father ('The Prince of Adventure'), confronts a summer apart from her beloved older brother, Orion, and grapples with the unexpected arrival of her Ethiopian cousin, Edom, who comes to stay with Jupiter's family while Jupiter's aunt undergoes cancer treatment. Kurtz's narrative, bursting with Itinerant buskers, edible weeds, and astronomical factoids, is a lovely portrayal of characters in the midst of revising and expanding their definition of family.

Jupiter will win your heart with her verve, tenacity and silky voice. She's a busker born into an unorthodox family that gets even more diverse when her adopted cousin from Ethiopia joins their family. A truly heartfelt middle grade novel that will linger with you long after you've finished. My kids loved reading it and I enjoyed our conversations about family afterwards. A gem of a book that is just as good the second time as the first.

Jupiter leaps off the page, a vivid, intrepid girl whose adventures in this story have both a folksy warmth and a global dimension. Her intersection with her Ethiopian cousin Edom is nuanced, honest and touching, and the quirky city of Portland is almost a character of its own in this novel. I felt engrossed in this novel from the first pages to the last.

I read this book hoping to learn more about the Ethiopian immigrant culture, and while this book turned out to be different than that in its scope (for example, it hints at an Ethiopian's Orthodox background when Edom, the child in need of a home, balks at eating pork, but doesn't go any further in illustrating her faith or her life in Ethiopia), it did provide me a very interesting window into the world of a child thrust into a very different family and into a very different culture. The way Edom and Jupiter--a very independent, free-spirited kind of girl--learn to relate and work together felt very authentic, filled with misconceptions and wrong assumptions, and eventually, a growing sense of respect and, well, family!The family Edom has made her way into is a family unlike any I have ever read about, which gave me a window into a completely different lifestyle from my own. Jupiter's family "busks" music and goods at street festivals, and the next meal is always a little uncertain. The longing Jupiter feels for an absent father, whose ultra free-spirited ways make the rest of them look down-right boring, and her desire to be like him, tugged at my heart strings and made me feel sad for her. I have to admit that I felt a certain, underlying sense of anxiety through much of the reading of the book--probably because I very much like knowing where my next meal is coming from!If you wonder what it might be like, though, to be living a busking kind of life and to understand how hard it might be for the many immigrants and refugees in Seattle (and around the world), Planet Jupiter is a warm-hearted, unique place to start. I reserve five stars for books that I would want to read again and again, but I do think kids will enjoy Planet Jupiter very much!

Eleven-year-old Jupiter is one of the most well-developed MG characters I've had the privilege of reading. What drew me in from the start was her powerful voice which was captivating, completely immersing me in her world. Jupiter faces A LOT of changes, from the loss of her father and living in a real house to the arrival of her cousin Edom from Ethiopia. She meets all these challenges in her own authentic way. I especially loved the world Kurtz developed for Jupiter to grow up in while learning what the real meaning of family is all about. Highly recommend to middle graders looking for a heartwarming read.