SuitabookCosmic
Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Reading
- Pause after Liam takes the chaperone role to discuss what he knows, what he is pretending to know and who might be affected. Revisit those ideas when the group is far from home.
- Themes
- Appearance and assumptions: Liam is twelve but looks about thirty, leading a principal and a car dealer to treat him as an adult. The situation creates room to examine the gap between appearance and identity, without establishing whether the book endorses or criticises particular judgements.
- Growing up and responsibility: Liam tries to reverse the frustration of being treated as an adult by presenting himself as the adult chaperone on a children’s space flight. The premise contrasts adult appearance with childhood status and places Liam in a responsibility he may not be prepared for.
- Worth knowing
- The story involves deception, rule-breaking and a journey far from home involving children in space.