Surveying Heinlein's juvenile novels, Jack Williamson noted that while Rocket Ship Galileo remains "readable, with Heinlein's familiar themes already emerging," it was a "sometimes fumbling experiment. ... The plot is often trite, and the characters are generally thin stereotypes."[2] Robert Wilfred Franson said that "Heinlein wants there always to be young people of the right mind and character to seize such opportunities.