Space kids: Blast off by Aleesah Darlison. Illus. by Nancy Bevington

This is the second book in the new series by this author about a group of children aged around 11, living in a space station called Misty in the year 2088. The first book in the series is called Sabotage.

The main character Nash is living with his father who manages the space station and is a very busy man.  Nash has made friends with Raj, a sort of walking encyclopedia and KC, a confident girl who loves to dress up in animal costumes.

In this story the billionaire inventor and owner of Misty brings his son Finn to the station to participate in the inaugural Milky Way Space Race. Finn, lacking many friends in space, is excited when his father invites the Space Kids to race with them in their blaster ship, Ventura. Some of the other teams seem bent on winning the highly prestigious race and employ some very dodgy tactics to that end.  But Nash and his space friends stay on task, completing the race themselves when some of those tactics result in the adults being injured and unable to continue.

Children who are curious about the possibility of living in space will find enough detail to satisfy their curiosity without it dwelling too much on day-to-day activities to interrupt this well-paced story. The positives of this book lie in the great example of teamwork between the children who not only work to win the race but also show that helping others in need has positive outcomes for them as well.

Themes: Space stations, Competitions, Space ships, Future settings.

Gabrielle Anderson