ACHUKA Children's Books UK

children's & YA recommendations on the go

You are here: Home / Archives for space

The Infinity Files by S. M. Wilson

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Escape into space with the star-spangled new series from the author of The Extinction Trials.

Get in. Get out. Keep to the task. Leave no trace. Ash Yang dreamed of being a starfighter pilot. But when she crashes out of her final test – literally – she somehow lands the most powerful job in the universe. As Guardian of the Infinity Files she must secretly planet-hop through the galaxies, stealing or returning treasures that have the power to stop wars…or start them. But when her home planet is the one at war, can she use her new skills to save it?

Space Oddity by Christopher Edge ill. Ben Mantle

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

5 STAR BfK review

Science and laughs combine in this out-of-this-world adventure, featuring illustrations by Ben Mantle!

You might think that this story is going to be an intergalactic adventure filled with UFOs, black holes, killer robots and some very foul-smelling aliens. And you’d be right. But it’s mostly about a boy called Jake, his embarrassing dad, and the mind-boggling question… are we really alone in the universe?

Space Detectives by Mark Powers ill. Dapo Adeola

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Dog lost in space? Grown an extra head and don’t know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? You need the Space Detectives! Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world’s first orbiting city, Starville (basically Beverley Hills in space!). The amazing space station is bursting with celebrities and the mega-rich. But Connor and Ethan are too busy selling ice cream to see the sights.

However, neither of our heroes can resist a mystery and when they discover the space station is hurtling on a collision course with the moon (eep!) they know they need to step in. This is a case for the SPACE DETECTIVES! Can Connor and Ethan find the culprit and save Starville from its impending doom?

Dapo Adeola, the illustrator, was recently featured in Meet An Illustrator…

Waterstones Piccadilly expands children’s section | The Bookseller

By Leave a Comment

The Bookseller reports:

Waterstones’ flagship Piccadilly store is expanding its children’s section after a sales increase of 20%.

London regional manager Luke Taylor said the company decided to re-think the space after “the recent explosion in children’s sales”, driven by reference, games and educational related products.

The children’s area will take up two-thirds of the second floor and will include a bigger picture book and board book range, a new YA space with crossover titles like Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, and an area for related products such as party packs and toys.

via Waterstones Piccadilly expands children’s section | The Bookseller.

Children’s space stories are ready to take off again, hopes SF Said

By Leave a Comment

SF Said hopes the time is right for space science to once again become a popular theme in children’s fiction.

When I was a child, spaceflight was a thrilling reality. The Apollo and Soyuz missions promised to extend our reach to the stars. Space exploration fuelled an explosion of stories during the postwar years in comics such as Dan Dare and Tintin’s Destination Moon, and in TV programmes and films such as Doctor Who, Star Trek and Star Wars. Yet even back then, space novels written specifically for young readers were hard to find.

They disappeared completely with the decline of space exploration in the 1980s and 1990s. But the new century has seen a re-ignition of interest in space. Star Wars is even bigger now than it was in the 1970s… …

…

Yet children’s fiction has somehow remained adrift from these developments. Where are all the epic new space stories for young readers? Occasionally, there’s a novel in which space is an ingredient. Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Cosmic is one example, as is Sally Gardner’s Carnegie Medal-winning Maggot Moon. But full-blown epic space stories have yet to enjoy anything like the visibility in children’s books that they enjoy elsewhere.

The prevailing wisdom in children’s publishing is that space is a hard sell. Everyone is a little scared of it. No one knows why. I’ve discussed this with authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians; we all acknowledge that it’s an anomaly.

…

Happily, there are signs that the tide is turning. Puffin has been commissioning Doctor Who ebooks from some of our best children’s writers, including Eoin Colfer (who also wrote a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sequel), and the new children’s laureate, Malorie Blackman. Increasingly over the last year, I’ve heard it whispered that “space is the next big thing in children’s books”.

I hope that’s true, because I’ve spent the last seven years writing Phoenix, a space epic for readers of nine and up, set in a galaxy where humans and aliens are at war.

via Children’s space stories are ready to take off again | Books | theguardian.com.