In her debut graphic novel, BINKY THE SPACE CAT, children’s author Ashley Spires tells the four-color tale of a football-shaped kitty who dreams of going to outer space, despite having never left the confines of his human owners’ house.
As the book begins, Binky receives his space-cat certification in the mail, and visions of intergalactic adventures dance in his head. But how to get out into the far reaches of the galaxy? And, more importantly, how to save his humans from an alien threat?
That alien threat is an influx of bugs in the home. Binky eats as many as he can, even though some give him gas (thus providing a sure-fire laugh-getter of a panel for kids in which Binky lets loose a “poot”). He trains for space missions via a flight simulator (i.e. the ceiling fan) and zero-gravity chamber (i.e. the washer).
It’s a cute work that adults won’t mind reading to their younger children, and those kids who are newly independent readers will find a fun, amusing story that tweaks their imagination without taxing it. I’m a bit put off by the computer-generated font instead of hand-drawn letters, but the little ones aren’t going to notice or care. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Escape from Earth: New Adventures in Space
- Space Vulture
- Dead Space
- Debatable Space
- The Colour out of Space: Tales of Cosmic Horror
