Reluctant readers, mainly talking to you boys in middle-elementary school through middle-middle school, hear me when I say this. I hear you when, through one manner or another, you say or infer that you don’t want to read. Cosmic Cadets (Book Two): Accused! is a graphic novel (a format that you love), is set on a ship in space (science-fiction!) and has a group of peers (kids your age) who are working together (a lesson that your teachers and parents will love). This is a younger-skewing all-age graphic novel that pays attention to the subject matter most graphic novels that age ignore.
I might be a heretic for saying this, but all graphic novels that speak to middle elementary school ages do not have to have fart jokes or puns about the process.
Cosmic Cadets is a graphic novel series that hits that demographic and still has humor, but leaves the potty stuff at the door. One could say, it opts for door number two. When Cosmic Cadets: Accused starts telling the story it keeps running.
The cast of Cosmic Cadets: Accused! has everything going for them to hook in young readers. They’re four disparate teen personality types that have to work together. There is the captain’s son, an intellectual, a reckless adventurer and someone who is a realist. The four humans are accompanied by Bobby, a tall, yellow alien being that feels emotions.
They are all explorers on the ESS Khonsu. The ship is travelling through hyperspace and the kids are waiting for a meeting with the ship’s captain. As with any kid, they’re getting restless and want something to do. It’s deep space and there are planets everywhere, they want to see more aliens and have an adventure. During the meeting the captain lets them know that they’re going to visit a species that rarely accepts visitors. The goal is to make an ally of them, but older readers will quickly see what’s going to happen.
Remember, Cosmic Cadets is not for older readers. It’s an all-age graphic novel that can be enjoyed by older readers, up to a point. You adult readers have seen umpteen episodes of some science-fiction show where the explorers meet the new alien race and there’s an unknown variable. There’s something about them that throws the humans for a curveball, or vice versa. Adults can, and will enjoy Cosmic Cadets but more for the effortless, fun readability of it, instead of engaging in the mysterious aspects of the story.
Once the crew of the Khonsu arrives on the mushroom-shaped trading station to meet this new race things quickly go sideways. The Batracians demonstrate signs that they’re far from humble. They seem to be an elitist group of aliens who act as if every other species should worship them. Their friendship museum is biased towards their displays of kindness towards others and the humans quickly tire of it. This angers their tour guide who scoffs at how anything their species does could be viewed as less than awesome.
The tour guide takes them on a tour of the city, but it’s not much more interesting. It’s only when one of the vendors suggests that the group sees the market that their interest is piqued. Unfortunately for them this is also when something gets stolen, and they get blamed. When they meet back up with the adults the situation has gotten much worse and their goal of making a new ally is in danger of making a new enemy.
The cosmic cadets are accused of stealing something and have to go on the run with their tour guide in an effort to prove their innocence. Young readers know that they’re not the ones who did it, but did they catch the subtle clues as to who did? This graphic novel combines a story that fun, in addition to being a little wholesome, but don’t tell those young readers that. It adds in friendship dynamics that mid-elementary kids need to learn about, even though they may say that they don’t want to learn.
Cosmic Cadets: Accused! isn’t learning or education, its focus is on entertaining and being fun. Some older middle school audiences will find the book too young, but considering that there are so few graphic novels geared for the elementary and early middle school market that is OK. For a season or two this will be your nine-year-olds, non-fart oriented best friend of a graphic novel. Don’t tell them that the youth in the book, when looked upon as a whole, are just the right kind of person that you’d like them to become. That is a bit too much like a lesson book, which will drive them away. However, what they don’t know is that often times, in great graphic novels there’s the intersection of fun, wholesomeness, life lessons, aliens and more fun, that coalesce to allow young readers to get lost in a book.
There are affiliate links in this post.
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube