Cosmic Cadets (Book One): Contact!
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Our parents can’t stop a galactic war… but maybe we can? Strap in for a colorful and action-packed space adventure about friendship, family, and fear of the unknown! Humanity has gone to the stars, and the ESS Khonsu and its crew are leading the charge to explore the galaxy. As the son of the ship’s captain, Jimmil might not always live up to his mom’s expectations… but right now he and his friends might be the galaxy’s only hope. After they’re stranded on a strange alien planet, they’ll have to do what their parents couldn’t: explore the surface, discover the secrets of the terrifying race that lives there, and try to prevent a full-scale war! Working together, these Cadets will discover that sometimes being a hero means learning to see new perspectives, and sometimes bravery means admitting when you’re wrong. In their debut graphic novel, Ben Crane and Mimi Alves serve up a heartfelt, thrilling, and vividly colorful and escapade about kids taking the lead, for middle-grade readers who are ready to seek out new life of their own!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In their debut graphic novel, Crane and Alves craft a rambunctious space adventure about a group of tweens intent on stopping a galactic war. Jimmil and his mother live on the ESS Khonsu, an interstellar exploration craft. But with his mother as the captain, Jimmil experiences pressure to follow in her footsteps and often feels isolated from the crew. When a mysterious entity attacks a scout team exploring the surface of a purportedly uninhabited planet, Jimmil and his classmates hijack a space shuttle to save them. Upon crash-landing, rather than encountering the missing scouts, the group instead stumbles onto intelligent life that seems mostly friendly. But the kids have no way to communicate with the adults aboard the Khonsu, prompting the space-bound crew to engage in drastic measures to retrieve Jimmil and his pals, inciting a conflict of otherworldly proportions in the process. Alves's jaunty illustrations render interplanetary flora and fauna via kaleidoscopic hues and free-flowing line art, and populate the narrative with a racially diverse cast. Crane's use of familiar sci-fi tropes to explore mature themes of hostility, reconciliation, and peace skillfully complement Jimmil's desire to prove himself and be seen as his own person. Ages 9–12.