Freedom Station, a space station in the Asteroid Belt, has been teenage Jack’s home his entire life, making him a true Spacer. But now he’s ready to make a change. With no family to hold him back, he’s looking forward to a new job on Liberty Station, and secretly hopes that he can track down relatives that may be there as well. The last thing he wants is a reason to stay on Freedom, so when Kit—an orphan newly arrived from Earth, labeled by Spacers as a Rat—worms her way into his life, Jack tries to resist the connection. Against his better judgment, he’s soon caught up in Kit’s plight, as she struggles to stay one step ahead of a menacing Company agent who’s searching for Kit’s “bot.” The bot—an ordinary maintenance robot—was modified by Kit’s Dad before his recent death, and now it holds information that could be worth a lot of money. Jack’s faced with an ethical dilemma: he could use some money himself but is he willing to turn in Kit? This entertaining science fiction novel explores issues of artificial intelligence and nonhuman rights within the framework of a plot-driven action adventure. (Ages 12–15)

Jack knows who belongs out in the Black. And who doesn't -- until Kit comes walking into the pub and changes everything he believes about the Black, about the people who live there, about what it takes to be a human being.

Margaret Bechard had set out to write an adventure story with laser guns and spaceships. Then, she says, "there was a big step and a long fall off a cliff while I realized that my characters didn't want to do the stuff I had in my mind; they had plans of their own." The result: Spacer and Rat, a fast-paced space adventure and a short story about human feeling and growing up -- science fiction for those who love SF; riveting fiction for those who don't.