I was sent a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Blurb: Dog lost in space? Grown an extra head and don’t know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? You need the Space Detectives! Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world’s first orbiting city, Starville (basically Beverley Hills in space!). The amazing space station is bursting with celebrities and the mega-rich. But Connor and Ethan are too busy selling ice cream to see the sights. However, neither of our heroes can resist a mystery and when they discover the space station is hurtling on a collision course with the moon (eep!) they know they need to step in. This is a case for the SPACE DETECTIVES! Can Connor and Ethan find the culprit and save Starville from its impending doom?
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Title: Space Detectives
Author: Mark Powers
Illustrator: Dapo Adeola
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genre: Fiction, Children’s, 5-8, Adventure, Sci-fi
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Review:
Lost something? A piece of your shiny new rocket ship missing? Well for the lucky people of Starville, Connor and Ethan are on the case! When a strange alien shows up stealing bags, the Space Detectives know something’s amiss. But a missing bag quickly becomes the least of their worries…
As soon as I heard about this book I thought it looked like a particularly fun read – and I was right! I don’t see many adventures set in space for readers in this age bracket so this one has become an absolute joy to recommend. Our main characters, Ethan and Connor, are visiting Starville for the summer holidays and it’s not long before they’re working on a case. There are aliens with funny names, hovercrafts, high tech ice cream machines and even clothes that can be changed with a flick on a button. The sci-fi elements of this one are fun and exciting and coupled with a mystery with some twists and turns, this made for some admittedly absorbing reading. The mystery itself starts of as something quite basic but evolves over the course of the book to keep young readers guessing and I loved it! Sometimes I think that when books are written for some of the youngest readers, they can be over simplified but I really appreciated that this book didn’t do that. I’m now keeping my fingers crossed that this book becomes a series!
I also want to take a moment to praise the illustrations in this book. They’re done in a fun cartoonish style that fits really well with the tone of the story and excellently depicts some of the hilarious moments that our characters get up to in these pages!
Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book to any little bookworms who are looking to go on their very own space adventure packed with all of the intergalactic elements you could possibly want!
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Rating: 4/5
Recommend?: Yes
Have you read this book? Or maybe you’ve read something similar? What did you think? I’d love to know!
You can always find me over on Twitter if you’d like to discuss this book (or any others that I’ve featured) in more detail 😌
Hannah's Bookshelf 🌸 