A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga: an unforgettable novel brimming with heart, humanity, gratitude, and perseverance

A Rover’s Story, a middle grade novel by the incredibly talented #kidlit author Jasmine Warga, is narrated by Resilience, a fictional Mar’s rover whose incredible humanity makes him leap off the pages and right into our hearts. So walk, run, or roll yourself to your favorite library or bookstore and get this remarkable book, for yourself or for the middle schoolers in your life.

Resilience stays true to his robot directive yet conveys deep emotional connections with other characters in the book, human and machine alike. At the beginning, when he’s still being tested in a sterile lab, Resilence (Res, for short) narrates how much he appreciates his faithful coders, Rania and Xander. Xander, the more effusive of the team, regularly talks to Resilience as though he can hear. Rania, however, does not but Resilience feels her care and love through her elegant and clear coding. I kept wondering if there would be some way he would show them he was listening. Alas, the only beings he can communicate with are a bossy, unemotional Mar’s rover named Journey and a video game-obsessed cell phone belonging to Rania.

Res is nervous when he and Journey are packed up and sent to Cape Canaveral without Rania or Xander, and I felt nervous for him, too. Thinking he’s only a spare, a problem with Journey forces Res to shuttle to Mars without his bossy friend. He is given a new companion – a mini helicopter probe, who he dubs Fly. The probe, who resides within the rover’s casing until given the instructions to fly free, is excitable and forever questioning but the most loyal friend any rover could ever ask for. The surprise addition on Mars is the satellite, who Res appropriately names Guardian. It’s not a stretch to imagine Fly as the younger sibling and Guardian as the strict but well-meaning parent figure who continually reminds Res of his main responsibilities – to find a lost rover and attempt to bring it back on line, and to provide evidence Mars once held salt water.

Mars is vast and dangerous, with dust storms and towering cliffs, and as much as Res perseveres, he isn’t able to speed up his slow and steady roll. Author Jasmine Warga does a fantastic job revealing the passage of time through letters Rania’s teenage daughter Sophia writes to Res (but presumably doesn’t send) from age 12 through her college years. Amazing, Sophia’s character comes alive through these alternately funny and touching letters with a wealth of emotional truths she can’t share with her work-obsessed mom. Res perseveres in seeking something important enough to warrant being brought back to Earth. Readers will join Sophia in hoping he succeeds.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll hope, you’ll dream. I won’t give the ending away, but I will borrow the words of #kidlit author Christina Soonorvat who wrote: “Res taught me what it means to be fully alive.” Yes, a thousand times YES!! I’m thrilled to share that Res’s accomplishments are based on a real Mar’s rover, and readers of all ages will be inspired to learn more about the rover program after falling in love with Res.

If, like me, you’re eager to learn more about Jasmine Warga and her previous #kidlit books, you’re in luck! Here’s her website: http://www.jasminewarga.com