Shanghaied to the Moon Book

Thirteen-year-old Stewart Hale dreams of Space Academy and becoming a famous pilot like his mother, and like his hero Val Thorsten. But after his mother's death, his father has forbidden any talk of Stewart going into space. And Stewart suspects there's something that is being kept hidden from him, something they don't want him to remember from his past.

A chance encounter with a washed-up old spacer gives Stewart an unexpected opportunity to sneak off on his own mission to the Moon. But when the old spacer's intentions turn out to be less than honorable, Stewart realizes he hasn't found his big break—he's been shanghaied!

VOYA

Young Stewart Hale wants to be a rocket pilot in the worst way. He idolizes the late Val Thorsten, the world's greatest pilot and the hero of many sensational 3-Vid adventures. Unfortunately if Stewart does not master AstroNav training in the next year, he cannot get into the Academy. The problem is that Stewart's mother, also a famous pilot, died heroically, and now his father will not let him go to space camp for training. Actually Stewart has other problems as well. He has hallucinations, and large chunks of his memory are missing, but neither his father nor his older brother will help him fill in the blanks. Also he is being forced to see a computerized Counselor who might be hypnotizing him. One day in a rage, Stewart damages the Counselor and flees his school, ending up at the rundown spaceport at Cape Canaveral where he meets a seedy old spacer who offers him a Cabin Boy's position on a moon mission, which he accepts. Nothing turns out to be what it seems, however, and Stewart soon finds himself hip deep in an adventure that rivals those of his hero Val Thorsten. Something of a throwback to the Heinlein juveniles, Daley's novel is exciting and full of gritty details. His characters are nicely developed. The book's one weakness lies in the sometimes jarring or archaic names that he gives to various technological innovations. Overall, however, this offering is a significantly better than the average middle school SF novel.