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Orson Scott Card's novella Space Boy is a look into the life of Todd, a thirteen-year-old boy who yearns to slip the surly bonds of Earth and explore the vastness of space. Unfortunately, Todd is intelligent enough to understand that he doesn't have enough aptitude in math or the physical requirements to become an astronaut. Instead he spends his days as a typical teenager.

However, Todd's life isn't entirely typical. Four years after his mother inexplicably disappeared, Todd lives with his still grieving father, his younger brother who fantasizes that the monster in the closet ate his mother, and finds himself visiting a succession of psychiatrists about his issues relating to his mother's disappearance.

Life doesn't begin to get strange for Todd until the day that he sees a dwarf appear from thin air in his backyard. The dwarf claims to be from another dimension, to which Todd's mother has disappeared. Todd suddenly finds himself wondering how much of what his brother has said is true and launches an attempt to rescue his mother from the other world.

In a break from many young adult science fiction novels, Todd is happy to enlist his father's assistance in searching for his mother. Nevertheless, when it comes down to action, Todd finds himself the one to take action. The world in which Todd finds himself is not the one he would have envisioned and his quest for his mother takes on dangers he could not have foreseen.

It is great to see an early-teenage character in a science fiction who is competent and capable and does not suffer from the Superman problem or being insufferable. Todd is a normal boy who has his problems, but also has a relationship with his father and knows when he needs his father's help.

While Space Boy seems a bit slight, it is an enjoyable and interesting book and the relationships at its heart, between Todd and his father, his absentee mother, and his brother, form the core of the novella. This focus is also what sets the book apart from so many other novels aimed at young adults. Card appears to be showing his readers that it is not only okay, but even necessary, to have a strong family.

Steven H Silver is a seven-time Hugo Nominee for Best Fan Writer and the editor of the anthologies Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings, and Horrible Beginnings. He is the publisher of ISFiC Press. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is heavily involved in convention running and publishes the fanzine Argentus.