172 Hours On the Moon

by Johan Harstad

In the New to Our Shelves book 172 Hours On The Moon by Johan Harstad, NASA is on the verge of doing something incredible and never done before. They are going to send three TEENAGERS to space based off a LOTTERY; people are picked completely at random from around the world. What are they thinking? Well behind the scenes, it will give a whole new generation an excitement for space. That’s not to mention the BIG $$$$ that it brings from sponsorships and people who want to keep NASA running. The world goes crazy and virtually every teenager on the planet signs up for it, but in the end there can only be three.

 The first, Midori Yoshida from Yokohama, Japan who, her whole life, has just wanted out of her country; she doesn’t like how they are trying to be modern but hold on to their ancient ways. She wants to live in New York City with her friends and this trip to the moon is definitely her chance to get away as far as she can. The next, is Mia Nomeland from Stavanger, Norway really didn’t want to go at first but after her parents signed her up without asking she realized something. She had been wanting to really make her band, Rogue Squadron, to get off its feet and how much more attention could she attract than being the youngest person to go to the moon? The last, Antoine Devereux is from Paris, France who just experienced a harsh breakup and wants to get as far away from his old girlfriend and his replacement Noel. You can’t get much farther away than the Moon! The three and a few other astronauts are going to stay in DARLAH, a space center they built years before and kept a secret, for 172 days. 

But, as the story goes on you can see that there is a reason we hadn’t gone back for so long.