Spaceboy by author/illustrator duo David Walliams and Adam Stower (Grannysaurus; Little Monsters) is packed with slapstick humor, fast-paced adventure, and true friendship as it captures the drama and thrill of (highly fictionalized) life during the space race of the early 1960s United States.
Ruth, a lonely, space-obsessed 12-year-old orphan living with her mean Aunt Dorothy (who thinks all children are "revolting creatures with filthy hands and snotty noses and unruly bottoms") embarks on a life-changing adventure when a flying saucer crash-lands in their farmhouse field. Ruth immediately takes the pilot, a silver space-suited alien called Spaceboy, under her wing, protecting him even when Aunt Dorothy, a fleet of helicopters, a tiny-mustached sheriff, and men in radiation suits come after them. Events unfold rapidly. Soon, Ruth, her three-legged dog Yuri, and Spaceboy are at NASA's space center in Cape Canaveral, suggesting fixes to U.S. rocket design flaws. But big secrets are about to be revealed, throwing the trio into "DEEPEST DOO-DOO."
At every turn, Ruth, Yuri, and Spaceboy run headlong into trouble with a hilariously absurd cast of characters. Aunt Dorothy "looks like a crocodile and snaps like one too." The local sheriff wholeheartedly embraces the donut-devouring cop stereotype. And "pointlessly tall and stupidly handsome" Major Majors, head of the "Top-secret Secret Base," seeks his mother's approval above all else.
Stower's laugh-out-loud illustrations are reminiscent of Quentin Blake's artwork, while Walliams writes like a true devotee of Roald Dahl, adding in comic-book style sound effects ("CLONK!" "WHIZZ!"). There's even a moral: "DON'T BE A DORK." Simple, silly fun. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor