Space Mountain

June 1, 2014

Gr 3-7-By winning a contest, space cadets Stella and Tommy are lucky enough to go on a time traveling expedition at Space Mountain, an orbiting facility that experiments with time travel. But their routine trip to exactly 24 hours into the future gets sabotaged, and they end up changing the past for the worst. Now under arrest for tampering with the future, Stella and Tommy must somehow go back into the past to save the future. Loosely based on the Disney Park roller coaster of the same name, this fast-paced adventure is short on exposition and rationale but big on thrills and excitement. The illustrations are a blast from the past, complete with 1970s retro-futuristic wardrobes and Flash Gordon-style rockets. Kids may not understand the various nods to the genre, but it's a nice touch nonetheless. Jones's usual gritty art style can be seen in the shadowy figures and details of the various robots but is mostly overshadowed by cartoony characters that match the feel of this over-the-top escapade. Young fans of TV's Doctor Who may be willing to give this one a try.-Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WI

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