Ruth loves to look up into the stars at night, imagining shooting up into space in a rocket like her idol, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He was the very first man to go up into space, and Ruth even named her three legged dog after him. It’s the 1960’s and space is a hot topic as the USA tries to copy their Russian rivals in the space race.

The night sky is the only pleasure Ruth gets since she was left as an orphan on her evil aunt’s steps. Aunt Dorothy makes Ruth work from dawn till dusk on her failing Ostrich farm, and also makes her share the minimal food she does get with her only friend – her dog Yuri.

One night looking up, Ruth spots something blazing across the sky. It’s getting closer, and closer, and…. CRASH!!! She knows she must go and see what it is. A plane? A meteor or what she’s really hoping for. A flying saucer!

Ruth and Yuri make their way to the crash site on the farm, and pull a strange creature from the wreckage. It looks sort of human, but it’s head is nearly as long as its body! Heck! She has to hide it before Aunt Dorothy arrives with her shotgun!

Ruth’s terrible life is never to be the same as she struggles to hide the alien from her aunt, the sheriff, the FBI, the CIA, the scientific boffins and even the President of America. Thrown into a bouncing, flying, racing, falling, but fabulously fun adventure, Ruth does everything she can to keep her first real friend (besides Yuri) safe.

Space Boy is a non-stop fun-fest, with tons and tons of action, a courageous heroine, a funny furry friend at her side, and an alien with a very, very big secret.

The villains are properly villainous, a president is really familiar (but I can’t quite put my finger on it – smirk) and a stereotypical military Major can hardly stand up with the weight of his medals and his strong chin.

As always, this new novel is chocka blocka with funny illustrations sharing the action and antics throughout the novel.

Author – David Walliams

Illustrator – Adam Stower

Age – 7+

(2022, Funny, Humour, Family, Fear, Slave, Farm, Alien, Spaceship, Flying Saucer, Tractor race, Helicopters, Science, NASA, Space, President of the United States of America, Ego, Villains, Military, Spoof, Friendship, Animals, Ostriches, Dog, Crash, Secret, Adventure)