Planet Earth Is Blue

The novel often uses allusions to other texts to explain Nova’s feelings and to show how she processes them. Early on, she expresses pleasure concerning one foster family that didn’t make “Bridget scrub floors like Cinderella,” referencing a fairy tale in which a lovely young woman is forced to do manual labor for her evil stepmother (2). Evidently, in one foster home, Bridget was treated like Cinderella, exploited and used by the people who were supposed to care for her, like in the fairy tale. Later, Alex’s claim that NASA Bear wants to eat them prompts Nova to respond (in her head) with a quotation from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “Of all the silly nonsense!” (49). Nova’s ability to reference these stories in appropriate ways during applicable moments in conversation or narration provides evidence of her ability to retain information in ways that most adults think she cannot; this also helps readers relate to Nova since her feelings link to texts with which readers might be familiar.

While it might be difficult to understand why a child would hit herself repeatedly during an event she’s enjoying, or even to know if she enjoys it, when the narrator explains her overload in the planetarium as feeling “like her heart had grown three sizes....like the heart of the Grinch” (85), this helps convey the fullness and happiness that Nova is experiencing. The two works to which the novel most often alludes are The Little Prince and David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity.” Both represent the comfort and familiarity that Nova associates with Bridget. Bridget played the song when she and Nova pretended to blast off into space, and Nova often listens to it on her sister’s old tape player and in her own head. While Nova sits in the planetarium, she replays it as a soundtrack to her emotions and imagines going into space, where it would be one of the few sounds she hears, besides Bridget’s voice. She writes to Bridget about a time she listened to the song recently, saying, “I needed to hear about Major Tom leaving his wife behind on Earth to travel into space […] I closed my eyes to imagine I was there. Just like you taught me whenever I needed to forget about missing Mama” (106). For Nova, the song is like a security blanket, reassuring her and making her feel safe; she ignores the part of the song in which Ground Control loses contact with Major Tom and he presumably floats into space and dies.

The Little Prince represents something similar. When Nova shares the book with the Wests, it’s an indication of her growing trust in them. She’s allowing them to be part of a group that has only included herself and Bridget for a long time. Francine reads one of Nova and Bridget’s favorite lines: “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, […] and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them” (67). Such lines give voice to Nova and Bridget’s feelings, confirming their validity and connecting the sisters in a new way. Nova letting the Wests be part of this connection represents a big step forward for her.

These chapters continue to thematically highlight The Challenges of Being Neurodivergent in Adolescence. For example, Nova is so “overwhelmed” by her extreme emotions (mostly positive) in the planetarium that she begins to hit herself, making Stephanie concerned. Nova can’t verbalize how happy she is. In fact, she’s so elated during the planetarium show that she feels “happier than she [has] been since before Bridget went away” (87). Her joy is monumental. On the other hand, Nova is so uncomfortable with eye contact, even with Bridget, that she can’t remember what Bridget’s eyes look like. This is terribly frustrating, especially because she understands that her inability to remember is the result of her own difficulty with eye contact. Furthermore, her incredible frustration in class becomes so overwhelming that she hits herself and acts in ways that others misinterpret. She writes to Bridget, “The bad thing was when [the teacher] asked questions about space and no one let me tell the answers. They want me to sit with a Quiet Voice and Calm Body and Happy Hands and just listen! It’s not fair” (101). She knows all the answers but never gets an opportunity to try to communicate them, despite raising her hand. When she becomes frustrated, no one understands that it’s because she isn’t given a chance to answer but knows all the answers. While her excitement is unmatched by any other character’s, so is her irritation. These extremes help illustrate two contradictory aspects of being neurodivergent.

Likewise, these chapters continue to thematically demonstrate The Personal Impact of Historic Events. Nova recalls Bridget’s words: “Nova, don’t you see? The First Teacher in Space contest shows us that anyone can have a dream […] even a high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire” (87-88). Seeing someone like McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, get the chance to travel into space makes Nova and Bridget believe that they can do it too. To the girls, McAuliffe represents “regular” people like them, people who have dreams that used to seem unattainable but feel so much more achievable now. When Nova witnesses the “twinkling flashes” in the planetarium, she thinks, “In six days, this would be the real-life view shared by the First Teacher in Space [on] the space shuttle Challenger” (89). She likens herself to McAuliffe, indicating how fully she relates to this woman who was plucked from obscurity and will now have the greatest opportunity that Nova can imagine.