Space Boy and the Space Pirate

K-Gr 2—Space Boy Niko is back in his second adventure. This time he needs to rescue his cousin Sasha from a Space Pirate (his sister Posh). With the help of his robot copilot Radar and his trusty dog Tag, Niko flies his homemade spaceship to the planet Zorg in search of Sasha. Despite Niko's best efforts, the Space Pirate and her maybe captive escape using his own spaceship. The stranded crew is forced to space walk back to Planet Home where they discover pirate booty (dolls) left behind in the spaceship. The story ends when Space Boy is called to the mother ship (dinnertime). Regan perfectly captures the joys of imaginative play and woes sibling rivalry while telling an excellent adventure story. The text is action-packed and humorous and clearly conveys the fine line between reality and science fiction. The cleverness of the text combined with Neubecker's comic book panels, full-page spreads, witty details, perfect expressions, and spot-on color palette makes for an exciting and satisfying read.