Grace Needs Space is a tender, sci-fi graphic novel about navigating family dynamics after divorce, by author and cartoonist Benjamin A. Wilgus (The Mars Challenge) and Steven Universe comics illustrator Rii Abrego (The Sprite and the Gardner).
Grace is bored with life on the space station Genova with her mom Evelyn, who has the same brown skin and dark hair as Grace--the park is too small and has "all the same stupid plants we have at home." Genova is nothing like Titan, Saturn's moon, a place she will soon be visiting with Ba, her freighter captain mom. "On Titan, they have real greenhouses... and the trees get super tall because the gravity isn't as strong." But when Grace joins pale, red-headed Ba on the Sadie Goat, her mom tends more to the ship than to Grace; on Titan, Ba is busy working. The 12-year-old, irritated at being left alone, ventures off solo to see Titan, where she accidentally gets stuck in an off-limits facility.
Abrego's energetic and emotive illustrations are a tribute to space and the humans inhabiting it. Grace gleefully floats in zero gravity and is ecstatic--wide-eyed and wild-haired--as the shuttle takes off in sharp yellows and oranges. Abrego uses panels and full-page spreads to transport readers to a place where people regularly travel intergalactically, such as when Grace's hands are the literal frame of the inky blackness outside Genova. Wilgus's authentic conversations between Grace, Evelyn, and Ba both capture emotional moments within families and the uncomfortable situations that arise between grown-ups. A relatable and amusing story for all ages. --Kharissa Kenner, children's librarian, Bank Street School for Children