Planet Earth Is Blue

Planet Earth Is Blue (2019) is the first novel by Nicole Panteleakos. A work of realistic fiction written for middle grade readers, it follows Nova Vezina, a preteen girl in foster care who loves astronomy and dreams of space travel. Nova, who has autism and is mostly nonverbal, is especially inspired by Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from Nova’s home state of New Hampshire who has been selected to take part in the Challenger space shuttle mission. Nova is in a new foster home, but her sister, Bridget, is missing, though she promised to return before the launch to watch it with Nova. Nova’s story demonstrates how deeply and personally such an event can affect a person, the challenges of being neurodivergent in adolescence, and the coping strategies developed by children in foster care.

Panteleakos earned an MFA in children’s literature from Hollins University, and she cares deeply about representing people on the autism spectrum in authentic, realistic ways, without relying on stereotypes. Planet Earth Is Blue was a 2020 Charlotte Huck Award Recommended Book, a Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award winner, and a Nerdy Book Club Award winner, among other distinctions.

This guide refers to the First Yearling edition, published in 2020.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss mistreatment in foster care, death from a car accident, and the Challenger explosion. The source text also uses outdated, offensive language to describe neurodivergent people, which this guide reproduces in quotations only.

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Nova is in a new foster home, but her 17-year-old sister, Bridget, isn’t with her. They ran away from their last home and became separated. Bridget told Nova that if this happened, she would return for the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, which will carry New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe, among others. Bridget and Nova eagerly anticipate the launch, now just 10 days away. Nova likes her new foster parents, Billy and Francine West, but they seem too nice; Bridget warned her that the nicer a foster home seems, the harder it would be to leave. Nova will start at a new school soon and dreads the testing that will lead her teachers to conclude that she can’t read or speak and is “[s]everely mentally retarded” (4), something Bridget never let people call Nova. Nova is interested in space travel and carries her favorite toy, NASA Bear, everywhere.

Nova writes to Bridget, but her writing is hard to read, and everyone else thinks it’s only scribbles. Though angry that Bridget isn’t there, Nova anticipates her return for the Challenger launch. She thinks that Bridget will like Francine. Everyone thinks that Nova can’t read, which frustrates her because Bridget taught her to read some. Nova writes about her memories of their mother, who believed that the moon landing was a hoax. Nova knows it was real: Bridget said so. She recalls the day when a social worker took Nova and Bridget away. She and Bridget hid in a closet and pretended to go on a space mission. This made Nova feel safe.

Nova begins school, and she writes to Bridget about how noisy her school is and all the unfamiliar smells. She looks forward to the launch, however, recalling how excited she and Bridget were when NASA selected McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space. Nova remembers one foster home that she and Bridget liked and how they hoped the couple would adopt them. Instead, their foster mom got pregnant, and the girls had to move to another home. The Wests read Dr. Seuss to Nova every night, but these stories seem infantile to her, so she shares her copy of The Little Prince, her favorite book.

Nova writes to Bridget about Joanie, the Wests’ daughter. She likes Joanie and thinks that Bridget would too. Nova recalls going to the movies with Bridget and her boyfriend and how Bridget begged her not to ruin it. Nova knows that she did ruin it, and she apologizes. At school, Nova gets to visit the planetarium with a high school buddy, Stephanie. Stephanie tells her about supernovas, and Nova remembers Bridget’s story about Nova’s name: Bridget suggested “Supernova,” but their mother decided on “Nova.” The planetarium overwhelms Nova, and she feels emotional and excited by everything she sees. She remembers how important escape was to Bridget and how she talked about how they would escape together. She can’t, however, remember Bridget’s eyes because she avoids eye contact, even with her sister.

Nova learns that she’ll get to watch the Challenger launch at school. When a teacher asks the class questions about space, Nova knows all the answers, but he doesn’t call on her, which is frustrating. She knows more about space than the other students. Nova explains her anger in a letter to Bridget. She remembers a Halloween when Bridget promised to take Nova trick-or-treating, but they went to Bridget’s boyfriend’s house instead. Nova was angry until she overheard Bridget tell him that she’d never go anywhere without Nova.

The school testing continues, though Nova worries that Bridget won’t know where to find her. She wants to stay with the Wests but is anxious that they won’t think she’s “nice” when she hits a boy at school. Francine finds Nova’s letters and recognizes that they contain writing. She makes Nova some flash cards and begins to test Nova to see if she can read.

Mrs. Steele, Nova’s social worker, is coming for a visit, and Joanie takes Nova out for breakfast beforehand. Joanie pulls over near a white, wooden cross on the roadside and talks about how it feels to miss people, like how Nova misses Bridget. However, Nova doesn’t want to be there or think about why her sister is absent. Francine and Billy tell Mrs. Steele that Nova is smarter and more capable than she realizes. Francine is angry that the welfare system failed Nova, Bridget, and their mother. The adults also discuss Bridget and how Mrs. Steele tried to explain to Nova what happened to her, but she thinks Nova can’t understand.

Nova remembers a tree house at one foster home and how she and Bridget pretended it was their space shuttle. Even after Bridget broke her arm, they still completed their pretend mission. Now, without Bridget, Nova coordinates a new mission, but the toy she uses as the shuttle breaks. Joanie says that she can fix it, but Nova isn’t comforted. She relates to Major Tom, who gets lost in space in David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity.” Nova can’t find the doll she substituted for Sally Ride, and she fears that if the doll is lost forever, Bridget could be too. She reminds Bridget of her promise to return for the launch, now just one day away.

On the day of the Challenger launch, Billy reads an article that praises McAuliffe’s inclusion in the mission as inspiring children to develop a dream of space travel. This article encapsulates how Nova and Bridget felt when McAuliffe was selected. When Stephanie does a presentation about the space shuttle, Nova is eager to answer and does so by pointing to pictures. Nova waits for Bridget, but she never arrives. When the Challenger explodes, Nova realizes that all the astronauts died and suddenly remembers where Bridget is. She runs away from school to the spot with the white, wooden cross. She remembers when she and Bridget ran away from their foster home and Bridget’s boyfriend’s car slid off the road, killing him and Bridget. Francine finds Nova there and takes her home.

Francine and Billy tell Nova that they want to adopt her, and Nova wants this too. She writes a final letter to Bridget, telling her that she still plans to become an astronaut and be the first girl with autism in space. Nova no longer calls herself a “supernova,” like Bridget said, because a supernova kills a star. Instead, she’s a “nova,” which makes a star grow very bright but allows the star to survive. Bridget may be gone, but Nova has survived, and she’ll live.