Stranded in Boringsville

"Rain May and Captain Daniel" is not a Star Trek book per se, but it is about a group of primary (aka elementary) school students living in Melbourne, Australia, who like (and/or come to appreciate) Star Trek - in all of its TV incarnations. Although Rain explains that she's named after a line in an e e cummings' poem, "Captain" Daniel assumes she was named for Rain Robinson, a guest character from the "Voyager" two-parter, "Future's End". Daniel seems to live and breathe Star Trek, keeps a diary he calls his "Captain's Log" (complete with stardates), thinks of his neighbours as alien colonists, and even knows a counsellor named Diana, just like Deanna Troi of "The Next Generation". This is a lot of fun. The kids in Bateson's book identify strongly with Trek ideals and characters, mainly of TNG and "Voyager". They support each other through some serious issues, in ways that would make Gene Roddenberry proud. They go shopping for Star Trek lapel pins at (the real) Minotaur Bookshop, can quote Kirk and Spock as readily as Deanna Troi - and are enthralled when a friend gives them a disk of the downloaded "Enterprise" premiere, long before it was to be commercially available in Australia! There are a few glitches in the novel: references to Lieutenant Tom Parish (Paris), Counsellor Troy (Troi) and Volcan (Vulcan) three-dimensional chess, but overall the story rings true. In the 80s I knew several primary aged kids who got thoroughly immersed in the Star Trek phenomenon. It's rarer to find them today because the newer ST series screen on free-to-air TV sooooo late at night, and to such an erratic schedule of delays and pre-emptions for sporting events and infomercials. Some fun quotes from the book: "I haven't much bargaining power, as the Ferengi would put it..." After watching the teaser of "Enterprise": "Then there was this dicky music and some credits started to come up." "... The music is so stupid... It completely sucks." "And she thinks Scott Bakula is a total stud puppy." From the back cover blurb: "Together these unlikely friends adventure where no one has gone before. Hunt for it! It's a great little read. As a Star Trek fan and a teacher of elementary-aged students, its bizarre that I missed it when the book first came out. It was even shortlisted in the Children's Book Council of Australia's "Book of the Year" Awards of 2003.

"And that's when I hated her. She had no right to call me her stepdaughter when she and Dad weren't even married, and anyway, no one had asked me whether I wanted to be called that. I would certainly never in a million trillion years have call Julia my stepmother and I wasn't going to start, thank you very much. Little kids might have stepmothers, but no Rain May Carr-Davies. It made it sound as though Maggie had died. It was awful." Stranded in Boringsville is a very touching book by Catherin Bateson. It's about a twelve year old girl name Rain, whose parents are divorced. She had to move from the city to the country, into her grandma's old house. She befriends the unpopular boy next door, Daniel, who loves Star Trek and is borned with a heart disease. Rain has to get use to the idea of her Dad and his new girlfriend. In the end, Rain and Daniel became very popular in school, and befriends her Dad's girlfriend, who also happens to be a Star Trek fan. One reason why I like this book is because of the mini fridge poems in which Rain and Maggie(Rain's mother) communicate with each other when they feel if speaking doesn't fit. Many of the times it's when they feel sad or really happy, it's like a way to put out their emotions. Another reason why I favor this book is because of Rain personality. She is a very good friend to Daniel. For instance, when the "popular" mean kids took Daniel's hat and refuse to give it back, Daniel just didn't do anything about it. Well, Rain did, because she couldn't just ignore the fact that her friend is being picked on, so she marched over to their table and demand them to give the hat back. Snobbish people never really listen to what they're told, so they didn't gave it back. Rain got very mad and started a fight, they all got in trouble. But Rain never regret standing up for Daniel. Lastly, I enjoy reading about how Rain gets around the seperated parents issue. Like when she decided she'll hate her father and his girlfriend forever, her mother talked her through it. Rain got over the whole thing very easily, as it seemed. In other stories it doesn't appear to be that simple. Overall, this is a touching book to read, though some parts may make readers cry or feel sad. But in the end, there's a happy ending. J. Cao