Learning to Swear in America

By: Katie Kennedy
location:FIC KEN
Genre:Sci Fi- Fiction -Romance

“It's not safe to know how to swear but not how to deal with people," Dovie said. "It's like walking around with your mouth loaded and the safety off.” 

I adored this book.

It was like if a YA version of the Martian met a YA version of Deep Impact. It was full of wonderful science, and scientists being jerks and bad guys (sort of) and science, of course, trying to save the day.

Yuri is a physics genius. He's seventeen but already a doctor and when NASA whisks him away from Russia to try and help solve the earth's asteroid problem, well it's not a surprise to him.
Because the problem is big, and if he and the other scientists can't get the math right, the asteroid will crash into LA, killing millions of people.
But Yuri is an anti-matter specialist, and the other scientists don't give him the time of day, even when he's trying to explain how his calculations could save everyone.

Yuri is alone, and lonely, until he meets Dovie, the daughter of a janitor. Yuri has no friends, and certainly never had the American high school experience, let alone any high school experience, and as the asteroid drifts closer and closer, so do Yuri and Dovie.
But maybe the scientists have made a mistake. And maybe the Asteroid is not what they expect. And maybe Yuri has to make decisions that will save or doom everyone, including his new found friends.

Yuri is wonderful. He's funny, and kind and you feel for him, being so alone and away from everyone and everything he knows. You feel his frustration when the other scientists won't listen to him, when he's alone by himself in his room, when he tries to Skype with his mother.

And Dovie, and her brother Lennon, are also wonderful. They're quirky and fun, and welcome Yuri so easily into their lives. The characters are so well-realized that I just wanted to be friends with all of them.

And then, of course, there's the wonderful science. There's not so much that you feel lost or confused or bored by it, but there's enough that the book just has this wonderful grounding of science, which leads to tension as the asteroid comes closer and closer.

Highly recommend to readers who like science based contemporary books, or books with romance or characters who are geniuses.- Sarah Aheirs

I loved this story--so funny and real and sensitive, perfectly balanced with tense, end-of-the-world stress and angsty teen worries. Now this is a damn good asteroid book.