Have Space Suit, Will Travel
A science fiction novel for young readers by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (August, September, October 1958) and published by Scribner's in hardcover in 1958. It is the last of the Heinlein juveniles.
Plot summary:
Clifford "Kip" Russell, enters an advertising jingle writing contest, hoping to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon. He instead gets a used space suit. Kip puts the suit (which he dubs "Oscar") back into working condition.
Kip reluctantly decides to return his space suit for a cash prize to help pay for college, but puts it on for one last walk. As he idly broadcasts on his shortwave radio, someone identifying herself as "Peewee" answers and requests a homing signal. He is shocked when a flying saucer lands practically on top of him. A young girl (Peewee) and an alien being (the "Mother Thing") flee from it, but all three are quickly captured and taken to the Moon.
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Community Reviews
Clifford (Kip) Russell wants to go to the moon, desperately. It is the late 1950's and he will do anything even enter the Skyway Soap contest to win a trip. He doesn't win first place, but as consolation he wins a spacesuit, that he refurbishes to perfect working condition. Kip wants to go to college but his family doesn't have the funds. If he sells the suit back to the company he will make $500, enough for one semester at a state school. In his last jaunt in the suit before he gives it up he hears an answer to his radio calls and a spaceship land on top of him. Thus begins the adventure of a lifetime. He meets eleven year old genius, Peewee, and there are space pirates, bug eyed aliens, and benevolent creatures, the Mother Thing, and life threatening adventures. One of Heinlein's juvenalia novels, it is filled with detailed science and the adventures are fun and engaging.
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