If Daddy Mojo did an annual top 10 list, To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here would be in that list. It’s a picture book that practically reads itself. The book’s cover reels in older audiences, as well as, those sophisticated folks who appreciate Bat Boy and his origin. Bat Boy was on the cover of Weekly World News in 1992. He was a boy who resembled a bat and was found in a West Virginia cave. The cover of To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here has a more scientific, glossier, STEM-centric appeal for the most part, but then has a giant star on it inviting people to “Be the FIRST to meet alien life-forms!”. It’s that bit of over-the-top cheese that sold WWN and helps sells To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here.
“Lift Here” is in big blue letters that are printed on yellow, surrounded by the pink outline of an arrow. It’s engaging, like Joe Hendry’s theme song, when it knowingly (and subconsciously) asks you to say his name, clap, and wave in unison. Well, sure thing I’ll lift here, then I’ll wave my hands and say his name. There are smaller touches on the book’s cover too, like a logo for the Interplanetary Communication Agency, official looking author’s name, and a view of deep space with thousands of stars.
This is an official book is what your four to six-year-old brain will tell you. It’s the same part of your brain that wants to believe you’re being shrunken into a hypodermic needle and injected into someone’s body, a la, Body Wars. You want to, but Disney would never allow that to happen due to insurance, liability and intellectual property.
When you open Space Portal, you’ll see a yellow square, set squarely in the middle of the book. It looks like it could be an eye, with the text “Look, Zrk!” written on the other page. On the next page, you’ll see a pair of yellow hands attempting to pry the box open more. The third page has a red face who has joined the yellow-faced being, with the box getting larger as the portal opens. By the fourth page it’s obvious that pair of strange beings are peering through the portal and are amazed at what they see.
They’re asking the same questions that you’d ask an alien. Is it going to eat me? Can it speak? Where are you from? Your friends would try to get in on the video call to the aliens, but they’d be too scared. Once your friends realize that the alien isn’t hostile they’ll crowd the screen, but the transmission is coming to an end.
The green power indicator, in the lower right corner of the pages, is going yellow. The window is getting smaller. The power indicator is red now and the transmission window is as small as it was when the book started. The aliens have just enough time to send a message to “all the planeturthlings”. It’s a nonsense series of letters that we can’t understand, but the transmission window shows a red outline of a heart. When the power completely shuts off, the power and auto translate button turn red, and any sign of the window has been replaced by solid black pages.
Older readers will be reminded of The Monster at the End of this Book, which is Sesame Street’s best- selling book ever. That book, and To Activate Space Portal, Life Here produce giddy, uncontrollable smiles for pre-k and early elementary kids. Space Portal is funny, weird (but age-appropriate!) , simple enough for those ages to grasp on the first try and engaging enough to make them want to come back dozens of times. Kids will have it read to them, but they’ll come back to Space Portal by themselves to laugh, look at the aliens and learn to love to read. To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here is the very silly, fun kind of book that kids will absolutely love for a period of their life.
To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here is by Antoinette Portis and is available on Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House Publishing.
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