Astronautical!

Written and illustrated by Brooklin Stormie

Annick Press

978-1-77321-942-4

248 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2025 

 

In the Zephyr Galaxy a long time ago, the planet Zephyr exploded into chucks. The inhabitants were ever hopeful that the great Cynosure would fix it and reunite the Chunk Planets but a hundred years later, nothing has changed. The Zephyrians, which include everything from parrot-like beings to human-like creatures and stars with appendages, travel by vessels that look like sailing boats and ships between Chunk Planets. In fact, it's on a visit to the Star Bird store that Max and Lari's dad, Robert Cherryhair, is apprehended by Cynosure's security Foxes while the brothers are inside the store. So begins the story of Astronautical! and the boys' mission to find their father.

From Astronautical! written and illustrated by Brooklin Stormie

With their own ship set aflame by Cynosure's Foxes, Max and Lari join twin yellow dwarf stars Dez and Ori on their ship, the Dove, intent on heading to Cynosure's hideout. But when you're travelling with twin stars one of whom rarely speak the truth and the other who believes almost everything–great lessons in fake news here–the journey is not a straightforward one. In fact, it is a drawn-out quest that takes them to different Chunk Planets, comets and more where they meet a blue supergiant star, a protostar and even a disguised black hole.

From Astronautical! written and illustrated by Brooklin Stormie

Even with obstacles thrown at them, the two boys, very different in their personalities, work together and discover that their differences are their strengths and would allow them to not only find their father but to also find a way to make things right for the Planet Zephyr.

From Astronautical! written and illustrated by Brooklin Stormie

Astronautical! is a rollicking middle-grade adventure for lovers of fantasy, astronomy, and good humour. The plot is wholly unpredictable, mostly because the characters range from human-like creatures to astronomical ones with the powers to alter their structures and abilities and interact with others. Brooklin Stormie, an artist from Peterborough, Ontario, has found an imaginative way to blend fantasy with science, merging a heroes' quest in a cosmic setting with legitimate elements of which young readers will want to learn more. (Brooklin Stormie includes extensive notes about sky-whales, black holes, star songs, and more in her appended notes called, "The Real Science (and Totally Not-Real Science) in Astronautical!") It's all very accessible, playful and captivating, and readers will never anticipate how it will end. 

Astronautical! is Brooklin Stormie's story but, as an illustrator, the artwork is what makes Astronautical! sparkle. Between weird characters and some strange abilities–though perhaps not really strange in an astronomical setting–as well as a variety of settings, from a convenience store to a desert, a planet separated into chunks, and more, Brooklin Stormie gives readers something fantastical and scientific. Quite extraordinary or, dare I say it, Astronautical!

One Giant Leap

Written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-599-0

48 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2024

 

Getting a child dressed, especially in winter, is akin to the prep required to outfit an astronaut. Each step must follow another to ensure coverage, safety, and fit. But when you're venturing out into that wide world of possibilities, it's best to be prepared.

From One Giant Leap, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Zippers pulled up on a suit, boots tugged onto feet, gloves wrenched on, and a hat stretched down low on a forehead are just the first steps of venturing outside. But as the child is transported in an elevator to the 1st floor, an imaginative transformation occurs. What was a child in a snowsuit is now an astronaut in a spacesuit. So, when they finally venture outside, it isn't into the snow, it's onto the moon.

From One Giant Leap, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Everything now is an exploration of a new land of shapes and structures. There's climbing and falling, searching and anticipating, and following footsteps. Are those aliens or something else? Is there peril? Can they communicate? Should they? What should they say?

From One Giant Leap, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Can the astronaut reach their destination and fulfill their mission? Only by following their trek across barren landscapes of inhospitable structures and unusually-garbed creatures can readers even know whether they make it to...the coatroom at school.

As a wordless picture book, One Giant Leap has a story that is driven by the cut-paper collage of Thao Lam's artwork. The story which is immense comes from the reader seeing and interpreting the visuals. Is that a rocket launch pad or an apartment elevator? Are those aliens or children in colourful snowsuits? Are those buildings or mountains, man-made structures or lunar landforms? Vietnamese-Canadian author-illustrator Thao Lam, known for her complex and meaningful books including The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story and The Line in the Sand, still knows how to do playful. Dressing in a snowsuit and venturing out into the greater universe, this child embarks on an other-worldly adventure, fueled only by imagination. What they experience is all up to them, and Thao Lam lets us see what they see. It's a textured landscape of dull grays and blacks, with only a dash of colour from an orange spacesuit or when other bizarre creatures appear. But in that lunar landscape, it is all about starkness, with the energy provided only through the child's imagination.

From One Giant Leap, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Whether stepping onto an unknown space body or onto a frozen city street, it's a giant leap of daring that must come from within. It's knowing what to expect and never knowing what could be found. For this little one, it's One Giant Leap into inventiveness and creative thought, and it looks like they had a great flight.

The Center of the Universe

Written by Ria Voros

KCP Loft (An imprint of Kids Can Press)

978-1-5253-0038-7

512 pp.

Ages 14-18

April 2019

...we slam into people around us, invisibly, all the time. Through things we say and don't say. What we do and don't do. That we are slowly changed by the constant bombardment. That we consume and are consumed, until we become products of our interactions, made of old and new parts, simultaneously broken and healing. (pg. 351)

When her mother, GG Carter, celebrity and news anchor, goes missing, seventeen-year-old Grace's world becomes warped, though not shattered. She'd already been arguing with her mother who is obsessed with her reputation and her work, often putting it before her family, even missing out on important events like Grace's astrophotography exhibit. (Grace is a budding astronomer, an active member of Star Club and a fan of Elizabeth Tasker.) Though Grace thinks her mother has been more stressed lately, it's evident that her mother has been keeping her cards close to her chest for awhile, and Dad even wonders if GG just needed some time away. But when Grace's dad gets a text from GG that reads "I'm not coming back. Don't look for me. Goodbye." (pg. 50), which he is convinced didn't come from her, Grace begins to pull memories and evidence together to learn what truly happened to her mother.

In tandem with her mother's disappearance, Grace is connecting with her crush, Mylo McLean, who has his own family issues including a powerful mother whose parenting causes him much stress. Together Grace and Mylo support each other knowing the struggle of having well-known mothers but, when Mylo admits that his father has been gone for five years and may be living on the street, the two realize that being in limbo puts them in a similarly unique place, the Perpetual Waiting Room (PWR).

He could sit in my PWR with me because we actually shared the waiting room. We were sitting against the same wall, staring at the same old magazines, waiting for different people to come through the door. (pg. 201)

The Center of the Universe may revolve around GG Carter's disappearance as her family struggles to learn what happened to her and then to reorganize upon her return home but she is not the center of Grace's universe. Her actions may impact her daughter but Grace exerts her own pull on those around her. While she may not realize her impact, she still draws others to her, including her young brother, her grandmother, her friends, her love interest and even her mother, and it's her story that Ria Voros has appropriately made the focal point. There is much discussion about perspectives and perceptions, especially with regards to GG Carter's back story, but Ria Voros makes Grace a compassionate and astute teen, especially as she attempts to process what she learns about her mother, while choosing what and whom she needs in her own life.

Ria Voros has written an extraordinary young adult novel about a mother-daughter relationship that is turned inside out but, first and foremost, The Center of the Universe is a coming of age for Grace as she learns who she is, with and without her mother, and that she is a star in her own universe.

Meet Chris Hadfield (Scholastic Canada Biography)

Written by Elizabeth MacLeod

Illustrated by Mike Deas

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-6389-7

32 pp.

Ages 6-10

August 2018

Just last night, CBC televised the 2018 Canada Walk of Fame gala at which Chris Hadfield was among the guests of honour being celebrated. Though most Canadians, young and old alike, will know Chris Hadfield as the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space, Meet Chris Hadfield will enlighten young readers about how he was able to fulfil his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.

From Meet Chris Hadfield by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

From his television viewing of the first moon walk in July 1969, Chris wondered about the possibilities of going into space. His hard work on the family farm and in school, as well as joining the Air Cadets, helped steer a young Chris to a life in the Canadian Armed Forces, having earned a degree in mechanical engineering before training as a fighter pilot. In 1992, he was chosen as one of Canada's newest astronauts, extensively training for three years, including learning Russian, before travelling to space in 1995 as a mission specialist whose work included operating the Canadarm. 

For his second mission in 2001, Chris was tasked with helping to add new sections to the International Space Station (ISS) which would require him to leave the ISS and walk in space. Even through a terrifying mishap which temporarily blinded him, Chris and his fellow astronauts successfully completed their missions. 

From Meet Chris Hadfield by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

Back on Earth, Chris worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space centre in Houston, training other astronauts and working as the voice of Mission Control, and then as NASA's Director of Operations in Russia. It wasn't until 2012 that he returned to space, this time as the commander of the ISS for 146 days. Readers will learn details about the ISS as well as how the astronauts ate and stayed clean and in shape. But Elizabeth MacLeod makes sure to discuss Chris Hadfield's efforts to get people excited about space. His social media postings, engaging with schools, singing, and helping to create a music video with David Bowie are all mentioned.

From Meet Chris Hadfield by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

Upon his return to earth, Chris Hadfield has continued his mission to get everyone excited about space.  Through his speaking engagements, publication of his children's book (The Darkest Dark, 2016), or promotion of space education (check out his website), Chris Hadfield pursues objectives of education and appreciation of our world and those beyond.

Elizabeth MacLeod and Mike Deas could have just told the dry facts of Chris Hadfield's background but, by making it  an illustrated story, Meet Chris Hadfield delves a little deeper and gives children the anecdotes that will be most relevant to them. It's about dreaming and working hard and having fun while engaging with others about your passion. Timeline details of his life are appended, alongside a few photos, but it's with Elizabeth MacLeod's text and Mike Deas's revealing but lively artwork that Meet Chris Hadfield will continue to stimulate interest in space as well as in being good citizens on Earth in ways that Chris Hadfield might never have dreamed.

 A French-language edition, Voici Chris Hadfield (978-1-4431-6390-3), is also available. 

Grandfather and the Moon

Written by Stéphanie Lapointe

Illustrated by Rogé

Translated by ShelleyTanaka

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-963-4

100 pp.

Ages 10-13

May 2017

Grand-père et la Lune won the 2016 Governor General's Award for French-language children's illustration and Groundwood Books has astutely engaged Shelley Tanaka to bring this jewel as Grandfather and the Moon to English-language readers. It's sensitive and nostalgic and emotive in a finely understated approach, blending a grandfather-granddaughter relationship with an exceptional journey into space.

Though it is evident from the subtle words and illustrations at the onset that the young girl's grandfather has passed, this is her story of how she remembers him.  He affectionately called her Mémère and, though he spoke few words, he said much to her.  He told his granddaughter of his past work, and always insisted she go to university and get her degree.  He drove around in a tank of a Chrysler and loved spaghetti that came out of a can.

From Grandfather and the Moon 

by Stéphanie Lapointe

illus. by Rogé

Life passed through Grandfather
like one long breath.
Warm,
and slow.

He adored his wife Lucille and was devastated by her death, slipping into a depression of fewer words, "Like his heart ran out of gas." When the Who Will Go to the Moon Contest is announced (though Grandfather hadn't heard of it, since he rarely watched TV, declaring that "Television is something that ends up doing our thinking for us"), the young girl is selected from hundreds of thousands of people for the space journey.

From Grandfather and the Moon 

by Stéphanie Lapointe

illus. by Rogé

After a booming launch, the girl ponders the beauty and silence of space, infusing her deliberations with her perspective on the history of space travel.  Just like the overwhelming emptiness her grandfather endured upon the death of his wife, the girl is staggered by the desolation.  Her response is stunning, to herself and others, but her grandfather in his box of a car is still there for her.

From Grandfather and the Moon

by Stéphanie Lapointe

illus. by Rogé

The relationship between granddaughter and grandfather is everything in Grandfather and the Moon.  There may be an extraordinary trip into space by an ordinary girl but even that does not surpass the profound connection between the two as the most important feature of the book.  Hardly effusive, the two still nurture their relationship as you would a fragile glass sphere, taking care with it but not engulfing it.  And even though I never knew either of my grandfathers, I know this young girl and this man who says so much in his actions and impacts her choices.  This must be a relationship very familiar to author Stéphanie Lapointe as her perspective is so intimate and touched with affection.

Award-winning artist Rogé who has illustrated countless French- and English-language books, his own and those of other authors,  uses pencil to evoke both the delicacy and the transparency of the relationship between the two generations in Grandfather and the Moon.  Moreover, the contemplative nature of the story comes out in Rogé's illustrations, from scenes of Grandfather at Lucille's bedside or the young girl's sojourn into space.  The colours are ever muted, with only glints of red, green or blue like stars in an oppressively darkened sky.  Together Stéphanie Lapointe and Rogé ensure that Grandfather and the Moon is loaded in gravitas in both words and art but with twinkles of humour and sweetness.  Because that's what life is generally like.  

The Clouded Sky: Book 2 of the Earth & Sky Trilogy

by Megan Crewe

Razorbill

978-0-670-06813-5

343 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2015

When YA author Megan Crewe introduced her newest trilogy with Earth & Sky last fall, I don’t think she could have anticipated the positive response she would get to it.  While still speculative fiction like her wildly-popular Fallen World series, Earth & Sky took us into true science fiction, with teen Skylar meeting and helping alien Traveler Win to procure the parts of a weapon that would destroy the time field generator that his fellow Kemyates had been using for millennia to experiment with Earth.  When we last encountered Skylar, she had agreed to accompany Win and other interplanetary rebels–leader Thlo with Isis, Mako, Pavel and Jule–on a spaceship headed to their space station home orbiting their devastated planet of Kemya. There, Skylar would assist the rebels in recreating the weapon–based on her memories and the parts she and Win discovered and the addition of the power source kolzo–so that it could be used to destroy the time field generator.

But, though she is trying to help, Skylar’s presence is not easily explained or even acceptable, until they contrive to have Skylar play the role of Jule’s pet, a common acquisition by richer Kemyates.  Win isn’t pleased but he accepts this as the means by which Skylar can evade the scrutiny of the Enforcers and still be safe, even allowing her the freedom to learn Kemyate and practise navigation simulations in the privacy of Jule’s private apartment.

However, two unexpected circumstances begin to alter Skylar’s contribution to the mission.  First, several mishaps suggest that there is a traitor amongst the group and Thlo charges her with making observations of the rebel group.  And then, unbeknownst to Win with whom Skylar had been becoming close but now sees only occasionally, Jule and Skylar become romantically involved.

Skylar is questioning everything she is seeing and hearing and experiencing.  And her increasing fluency with their language enables her to overhear much which would normally be kept from her.  She needs to know who is sabotaging the mission and putting herself and others at risk.  And who can she trust?  What about Win and what about Jule?  Skylar may be a teen trying to help save her world and put things to right but she needs to learn how to navigate more than just a jet-pod.  Does Win still care about her?  Is her relationship with Jule, Win’s nemesis, a consequence of her “pet” status, as is not uncommon between Kemyate owners and their Earthlings, or something special?

The Clouded Sky may refer to the hazy violet-red clouds that contaminate the air over the “vacant, dust-strewn wasteland” (pg. 343) that is the uninhabitable Kemya but it is even more applicable to the murkiness of truth and deception that Skylar must steer through if she is to accomplish her one true purpose: to stop Kemyate scientists from continuing to alter Earth’s history and to degrade the fabric of her world.  She is strong and focused and, though she allows herself to enjoy the closeness of an unexpected romance and of caring friendships with several rebel Kemyates, Skylar knows the dangers that lie within and outside, and that her role in everything is very tenuous.  But that’s how Megan Crewe writes it.  She keeps the readers wondering and worrying and expecting and disbelieving throughout the story, never giving any hints to her startling ending.  But Megan Crewe has always kept us on the edge of our reading chairs, and she does so again in The Clouded Sky.  And that final line will undoubtedly shock you as it did me.  Luckily, I’ve seen photos of the third book in the series, A Sky Unbroken, which will be out soon and I know Megan Crewe will be at this weekend’s Eden Mills Writers’ Festival so here’s hoping we know sooner, rather than later, the upshot of all that was Earth & Sky and The Clouded Sky.

Earth & Sky: Book Launch (Toronto)

Join 

Megan Crewe 

author of young adult speculative fiction

at the launch of the first book in a new science fiction series

Earth & Sky

by Megan Crewe

Razorbill Canada

978-0-670068128

336 pp.

Ages 13+

Release date: October 28, 2014

on

Sunday, November 2, 2014

at 1:30 p.m.

(note: this is the day after Daylight Savings Time takes effect!)

at

Story Planet and Intergalactic Travel Authority

1165 Bloor St. West

Toronto, Ontario

416-645-1049

There will be books sold and signed, 

interstellar refreshments served, 

swag to grab, 

and more!

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