Bechard, Margaret. Spacer and Rat

Bechard, Margaret. Spacer and Rat.Roaring Brook Press, 2005 [1-59643-058-3]
Bechard has created a wonderful alternate world in this piece of science fiction. Unfortunately the process of establishing that world with the reader slows down the beginning of the book. After that we have a great adventure story. Jack lives on one of the many places people have fled to when Earth became too crowded. The nickname for people from Earth is "rat." Suddenly Jack ends up befriending a "rat" who has a contraband maintenance bot that has been modified to be sentient (against the Constitution.) Some is chasing them to get this revolutionary bot. This 183 page book is a great story with a surprise ending that I REALLY enjoyed. The alternate reality which Bechard has created is really clever. One of their curse words is "span" and another is "drekking." What I really enjoyed is the names of space ships some of which are "Bradbury", "Asimov" and "LeGuin." This is great science fiction... encourage the kids to plow through the first slow part.