This one is a reread for me. I loved it as a young teen and I still enjoyed it a lot. It's a lot of fun.

Have Spacesuit - Will Travel is more fanciful, less hard-science fictional than other Heinlein juveniles (because of the presence of very advanced alien technology). Our young hero, Kip Russell, doesn't really earn the right to be in these adventures with his hard work, like Matt Dodson did in Space Cadet. He was in the right place at the right moment. In that sense it may be less successful as a coming-of-age tale, but Heinlein makes up for it because Kip matures and gains confidence during his adventures and he was in a position to get in the greatest adventure ever because he had worked so hard to get his spacesuit and get it in working order. This is one of the nice messages of this book: if you want good luck you should work for it instead of waiting for it to find you on its own.

Since we get aliens with far-future technology, this story doesn't look as dated as other of these juveniles. We still get a bit of Heinlein's obsession with slide rules, though. That takes me to a conclusion I have reached after reading these books: Heinlein had a curious mind and he loved science, but he did not have a solid understanding of what maths and science are really about, like Asimov did, for example. He had an obsession with actual calculations, when knowing what to calculate is the important bit. He believed that by studying different fields you could almost become an expert in all of them, when it just doesn't work like that. His 50s attitudes can also be noticed in Kip's mother, a very bright student who marries her older professor and seems content to follow him around and be a housewife, and his libertarian attitudes in the occasional dig against taxes from Kip's father.

The dynamics between the main characters works well, particularly between Kip and the bratty little girl who also happens to be a genius, PeeWee. She was young enough that there was no need for the target audience to get distracted with any romantic tension. Then there was the cute, lovable alien, another of Heinlein's favorites, although this one was extremely intelligent and technologically advanced.

The story has three parts: Kip's studying, getting his suit and repairing it; the adventures fighting the baddies; and the healing and trial. All are enjoyable, but the best for me was the trial. I found the amoral idea of justice of that supposedly advanced tribunal quite intriguing.

If you go to the start of this thread, you'll see I started this reading project after reading a discussion on John Scalzi's blog about how his daughter had not liked a Heinlein juvenile he had loved as a boy (Starman Jones). I believe he should have given her Have Spacesuit - Will Travel. Despite some nitpicks it is mental candy: very readable and full of adventure and epic sense of wonder. ( )

What a disappointment! I generally appreciate and enjoy this author's books, even most of his earlier juvies but I won't be finishing this one. It started so well, included some of Heinlein's social commentary that has shown to be prophetic, and I found the more technical aspects to be intriguing. But then he lost my interest with a plot twist that was almost cartoonish, outlandish, bizarre, like a skit from Monty Python. Abandoned after fifty pages. No stars.

Contains a couple of early in the book spoilers!!!

One of Heinlein's first YA SF works. Exudes 1950's optimism and values...not another dystopia of the future. Instead life just a little bit in the future but changed enough to be attention grabbing.
We have a moon base but not heading to the stars.
Our hero wants to go to the moon. His father says'"Sure...if you can come up with the money and means"
So our hero Kip, works as a soda jerk in a drugstore and finds out a soap company is giving away a trip to the moon as a grand prize for a new jingle. Kip becomes the salesman of the ages and the best con man to get the wrappers to send in. He wins....2nd prize along with a bunch of folks who submit the same jingle.
The company gives a "real live" Spacesuit from the base.
. Then they offer to buy them back after a publicity campaign. Kip being gifted in science and a knack for tinkering...decides to totally refurbish the suit before selling it back for college tuition money so he can start college.
He gets the suit in prime shape and decides to take one last walk in the suit. Suddenly there is an answer to his radio tag line and his life changes.
Lots of interesting changes, events and characters follow. Heinlein didn't write down to his audiences and threw in math and science, fully expecting the reader to "deal with it".
Great read for preteens, fun for us older kids at heart. ( )

Kid's book, but definitely fun to read. Our hero wins a space suit in a jingle contest, a '50's type event in a book from the '50's, which suits him just fine. His post high school dream is to fly into outer space. His dream comes true in a most unexpected way and leads to more extraterrestrial adventure than he could ever have imagined. Let's face it, only Heinlein could dream this up. But for a quick, fun read this perfect. ( )

A juvenile novel starring one of the space suits from Starship Troopers. Meant for kids and I read it as a kid. It’s ok: there’s no long rants from a crypto militaristic libertarian POV. If you put a gun to my head and said I have to recommend a Heinlein novel to someone … or else … this would be it.