Space Detectives (series)
9781526603180
9781526603203
Mark Powers
Dapo Adeola
Bloomsbury, 2021
160pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99
Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world’s first orbiting city, Starville , a gigantic space station sailing silently as it orbits Earth and home to over a million humans and aliens. This single city, brimming with skyscrapers, parks and even an artificial sea is enclosed by a huge, strong glass dome like a vast snow globe, and 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 -they had solved many back home on Earth – and when they discover the space station is overrun with cosmic chaos! Boys have two heads, dogs have three tails and even aliens who normally have six arms are growing extra ones! What is going on? Can Connor and Ethan get to the bottom of this intergalactic mystery?
This is the second in this series for young, newly independent readers who like the idea of a mystery mixed with science fiction so anything can happen. With the third episode, Cosmic Pet Puzzle, coming in August 2022, the beginning of the new school year is the perfect time to entice those emerging readers into continuing their reading with series written and formatted just for them. This is one to recommend.