Slob - Ellen Potter [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
PHILOMEL BOOKS
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Copyright © 2009 by Ellen Potter.
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For Will Rabinovich
Acknowledgments
I’m not nearly as smart as Owen Birnbaum, so I needed a lot of help to write this book. I am lucky enough, however, to know several very smart people. Special thanks to Will Rabinovich, who patiently explained electromagnetic radiation and dwarf stars and helped me work out a clever scenario for Owen’s Nemesis invention. Special thanks also to my husband, Adam, who has been dissecting electronic devices since he was a boy genius and understands how things work better than anyone I know.
While I was researching this book, I was lucky enough to connect with the wonderful Jim Sky, editor for Radio-Sky Journal, http://radiosky.com. He generously gave me a crash course on radio telescopes as well as some unusually creative ideas as to how a twelve-year-old boy might be able to pick up signals from a star. I can’t thank you enough, Jim! For anybody who is interested in trying to build their own simple radio telescope and observe Jupiter, the sun, and the galactic background, Jim suggests peeking at the Radio Jove Project, from NASA, http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
Many thanks to Urgyen Khetsatsang for all his help regarding Tibetan customs. Thanks to Jason and Tyler Ward, my kid informants, and to Adam, Valerie Akers, Stella and Koen Boyer, Jessica Dougherty, and Bill and Sharon Morrow for giving me the gift of time to write this book. Thanks to Ian, who has been patiently waiting for “his book” to be finished so that he can build a garage for his toy cars out of my author copies.
As always, a galaxyful of gratitude to two superstars, my agent, Alice Tasman, and my editor, Michael Green!
1
My name is Owen Birnbaum, and I’m probably fatter than you are. This isn’t my low self-esteem talking. This is pure statistics. I’m five foot two and I weigh 156 pounds. That’s 57 percent fatter than the national average for a twelve-year-old boy.
I’m also probably smarter than you. I don’t mean that as an insult. Again, statistics. They had my IQ tested in the second grade. I won’t tell you my score. Actually, I can’t tell you my score because I promised my mother I wouldn’t do that anymore. I used to tell everyone. My mother said that was obnoxious. I think she was also worried about giving my sister, Jeremy, a complex. Jeremy is a year younger than I am and not the brightest crayon in the box. She’s a good kid. Just very so-so in the cerebral cortex region.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that a lot of books start out with some kid’s first day at a new school. You can see why, of course. It makes for great suspense. The new kid is feeling very nervous. Everything seems slightly sinister. Half the kids in the class look like they want to smash