Zita the Spacegirl

Zita the Spacegirl 
Ben Hatke ~ First Edition, 2010

This book was one of the first graphic novels my son fell in love with, purchased on his own at his school book fair in first grade. We've subsequently gifted it to many of the children we know and cheered it on when it was nominated for a Texas Bluebonnet Award from the Texas Library Association (beat out narrowly by Postcards from Camp by Simms Taback). 

The story is classic. Girl does something reckless that puts one of her friends in jeopardy. Girl must take a chance to save her friend. Then, of course, girl ends up needing to save the world in the process. Zita has everything you could want in a sci-fi story. A mysterious and spooky beginning. A rebel main heroine who may have some naughty qualities. Portholes to other universes. Creatures both adorable and horrific. A team of misfits. A mentor. It's a fabulous G-rated introduction into the graphic novel arts, and the art is straightforward and huge fun to ogle.

The intro to the book includes a quote from G. K. Chesterton that I think says it all...

There are two ways of getting home; 
and one of them is to stay there.
The other is to walk around the whole world
Till we come back to the same place.

Zita's creator, Ben, was kind enough to pen the banner for this blog, if you haven't noticed. If you don't know much about him, check out his work, because he is a super awesome guy with a real talent for telling children's stories through images. Plus, the man breathes fire, for heavens sake!

The original book was followed up with Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, and a third book, Return of Zita the Spacegirl, is due out in the next year.