Space Rats

by Jacqueline Kirk

Troy and his brother long to be back among the stars in their spaceship Star Chaser after crash landing on the planet of Goramir. They decide to escape and find their way home, accompanied by four of their friends. The little crew encounter aliens; visit a Space Station and stop an attack by the dreaded pirate Red Raven - the criminal who caused them to crash land in the first place!

188 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

I live in the south west of Scotland. I grew up with a great love for reading and it was only a matter of time before I started writing my own stories! : )

Website
http://www.jacquelinekirk.com

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Amazon.co.uk
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Amazon.com
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Reviews

[megan jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space rats

I am writing about this book talk space rats tell you about space. I think very good to ready for bed time. I think very good for kids and adum to leaning about space by the book about it.

[Lizzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A cute story but the basic premise is unbelievable. Even though it is written for the 8+ year olds, I know that my children at that age would not have suspended their disbelief enough to accept that a 16 year old and his little brother along with 4 of their friends from ages 10 to 16 could repair a spaceship, escape from a children's home, operate the ship on their own including piloting and landing, and then be allowed to continue on their adventures by the intergalactic police. A teenage girl hacking computers is one of the few characters young readers would find realistic. The characters ' actions and adventures in shopping for supplies and exploring a space station and their antics to escape their former "headmaster" we're more typical behavior and fun to read. The story itself presents a positive view of friendship, self-esteem, helping others, and the kindness of strangers despite their differences without sounding moralistic.

Unfortunately, the author's language skills and lack of editing really detract from the story. Since children learn many of their grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure skills from reading, I truly dislike providing poorly written books to children. I believe authors who choose to write for children and young teens have a larger responsibility to apply good writing skills so that our children learn properly.

I start my reviews based on 3 stars and as I read the book add or detract based on the content. In this instance, the lack of belief in the story took away 1/2 star and the poor writing and editing reduced my rating by 1 star. I debated between rounding up or down as that put it at 1 1/2 stars. So on Amazon I rounded up and Goodreads rounded down.

I obtained this for free through Amazon. I enjoy children and young adult science fiction, which genre I have been reading since I was 12; having introduced my children to it at an early age, they enjoy it as well; and with grandchildren entering the reading age, I look for positive books to pass on to them. I would not buy this book.