An asteroid is speeding toward Earth and physicist Yuri Strelnikov has been rushed by NASA from Moscow to Pasadena, Calif., to help head it off. The problem (other than the giant space rock) is that Yuri is only 17, so the older team members don't take him seriously. They also won't consider his unpublished work on antimatter even though he knows it will work, and they don't trust him because he's Russian. In addition to calculating how to break up the asteroid, Yuri has to figure out this new culture well enough to get people to listen.
Yuri is a compelling character. He knows he's behind on social skills. "I don't even know how I feel," he says at one point, "It's not something I sit around and think about." But he's always working to figure things out, like when he hears a poker game and his mind converts the rise and fall of conversation into sine waves of human interaction. He's also kind. When a janitor's daughter gets shooed out of the snack room by security, Yuri follows "the pretty American girl" out with coffee and doughnuts. And that's how he meets Dovie, who's terrible at driving and good at art.
Learning to Swear in America, Katie Kennedy's debut novel, is a fun read, and she keeps the stakes rising in an exciting and organic way. Yuri will resonate with any teenager who has a lot to say but doesn't feel heard. And he might just take Dovie's advice: "You gotta learn to live life, not just save it." --Ali Davis, freelance writer and playwright