Cakes in Space

A Not-So-Impossible Tale #3

by Philip Reeve, Sarah McIntyre (Illustrator)

Get ready for killer cupcakes! Deadly donuts! And an outer space adventure with illustrations on almost every page.
 
Astra’s family is moving—to a whole new planet. And what does any kid need on moving day? Snacks! But when Astra asks her spaceship’s computer to whip up the ultimate dessert, it makes cakes so amazing that they come to life . Now these cake-monsters are destroying the ship! Can Astra and her robot friend stop them in time? Or are these terrible treats a recipe for disaster?
 
For early chapter book readers who are ready for something longer, the Not-So-Impossible Tales are packed with silly humor, action, and larger-than-life fun.
 
“An out-of-this-world choice to read alone or read aloud.” —School Library Journal
 
“Will appeal to reluctant and strong chapter-book readers alike.” —Booklist

"Goofy fun from the first page, and Astra, a perfect mix of ingenious, precocious, and excitable, will grab readers right away." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade, Fantasy

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2014

About the author

Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years while also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects.

Philip then began illustrating and has since provided cartoons for around forty children's books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series.

Railhead, published by Oxford University Press, will be published in the UK in October 2015

Pugs of the Frozen North, written with Sarah McIntyre, is out now.

Reviews

[Caleb CW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astra is a little girl whose family is moving to a new planet called Nova Mundi and they're going to sleep for 120 years. She doesn't want to get hungry on the trip so she goes to the food synthesizer and requests the ultimate cake. It turns out machine versions of ultimate vary from people's who knew? Everyone with autocorrect that's who, but despite that she doesn't get her cake because the synthesizer has a hard time processing the order. So she goes to sleep. 99 years later she wakes up. And she's the only one to do so. It turns out food synthesizer thought ultimate cake meant cakes that eat other stuff and battle. Then on top of that problem they are off course. Plus there are the poglites with a love of spoons. Eventually the ultimate cake is made and all crises are averted.
This is a fun read for the kiddos. It's hard to get the kids engaged in most books but this one they followed the whole time. I loved reading this to them because they asked questions and laughed. This is a warm book, children laugh, they listen. Just good feelings all around. Ages recommend 4-8.

[Holly Glem · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids liked it but I was less into it, but it’s not its fault it followed my favorite read aloud so it had big shoes to fill!

It was cute and I took the kids to a play place today and they were playing that the play place was their space shape and they were saving it from aliens and cakes, and really what else can you ask for as a mom reading to her kids?

My critique was that I was often tongue-ties as a read aloud! For some reason the writing style was very choppy for me and I found myself mixing up the words and losing my place. Not sure what the culprit was, but it was something. I also think it maybe was supposed to be funny but none of us laughed, mine were maybe a bit little to pick up on the humor. But they both liked it.

Loved all the pictures and it read very fast.

June 23 - read it again and I liked it more the second time!

[Karl Orbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, here we have a book with a very suspicious title, Cakes In Space - the phrase "Oh really?" tends to get uttered, or just "What?", whenever I've mentioned it to anyone. That's the type of book it is too, weird and instantly intriguing, coming straight out of left field, or whatever passes for left in the depths of space.



This is a second outing for the Reeve & McIntyre partnership. I'm a long term fan of Philip Reeve, indeed he is probably my favourite author, which is saying something amid stiff competition. The first of their books, Oliver and the Seawigs, I did not really care for, my least favourite Reeve book so far - so I was not expecting anything good from this novel. However, I was very pleasantly surprised...





The book is based around a little girl called Astra, she's 10, and is on her way to a new life, far, far away, on a planet around a star that is a couple of centuries journey away. That's a very long time to be travelling for any child. Resisting the urge to fill every page with "Are we there yet?", the story relies on cryogenic stasis, or going to sleep as it's phrased here. A sensible solution to impossibly long distance transport, however, there is always the issue of the reliability of the automation of any vessel when everyone is fast a-kip, especially when a somewhat obscure computerised food production machine is attempting to do his best Deep Thought impersonation.

"'I am Nom-O-Tron,' said the machine, in a big, boomy voice, so loud that Astra was afraid her mum and dad or some other grown-ups would hear and come to see who was sneaking a bedtime snack. 'Shhh!' she said. 'Have you got any biscuits?'"

As Astra says in a warning, "DO NOT use the word 'Ultimate' when ordering food."



A wonderful little book, funny, very novel, though with a huge dollop of influences from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and above all, the original Lost In Space.

"The trouble with space is, there's so much of it.

An ocean of blackness without any shore.

A neverending nothing.

And here, all alone in the million billion miles of midnight, is one solitary moving speck. A fragile parcel filled with sleeping people and their dreams."

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a lot younger than I normally read so wasn't expecting much. I was so naive in that mindset because I truly thought it was such a brilliant read.

The story itself is silly and utterly bonkers along with being loads of fun. It made me laugh all the way through and I quite literally couldn't put it down. However what I loved the most about it was the story mixed with the pictures. Granted I only read a proof so all the art work wasn't quite complete but it was already awesome and when finished will make for a stunning book. I will be buying several copies for every little person I know

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it a great classic of children’s literature? No. But it was the first book in who-knows-how-long that captured all three of my kids’ attention. My oldest has read this multiple times before and enjoys it. The 6-yr-old has been grumpy with every read-aloud we’ve tried recently until this one, which he gave a solid 7/10 (but also asked me not to return it to the library so we could read it again. So I think 7/10 might be as good as it gets for his currently over-discerning taste.) Even the three-year-old laughed uproariously and has taken to going around the house saying, “Ploogah stoofie!” with great relish. So I count this book a win in our house.

[April Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurd things happening in space is always fun - think Hitchhiker's Guide or Red Dwarf - and this is in that same vein, but geared at the elementary set. It starts as a simple story about a girl traveling to a new planet with her family, and ends up involving evil sentient cakes, aliens obsessed with stealing spoons, and a Nameless Horror that's actually pretty friendly. Fun quick read that my six year old and I both enjoyed! My only complaint is the number of times characters call each other stupid - frequent name calling is something I'd rather not see in a book geared at this age group. Otherwise great!

[The Library Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids who read and enjoy stuff like this will probably have the good taste to watch Red Dwarf and Mystery Science Theater 3000 ,and read Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett when they are older. Nonsensical fun.

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun and a definite possible guided reading for fluent readers in LKS2 or Y2. Fun, hilarious, deeply imaginative and does not take itself seriously at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Liat van Dijk · Rating 4 out of 5]

But my 6-years-old son would probably give it a billion stars.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun and unique kids book. Loved the illustrations on almost every page, they really helped keep my kids engage with the story. Great option for kids who are fans of The Princess in Black series- although quite a bit longer to read and a lot more intense. My kids loved it!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

He didn't want to send this one back to the library when he was done with it, so that means he really liked it.

[Amiad]

סיפור מד״ב בדיוני חביב לילדים

[Fila Trece (Liantener) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divertido por todo lo absurdo de la situación. Fácil de leer.
Reseña completa aquí:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsrFU...

[The Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't my favorite of those I have read so far. It had a bit of a slow start but got better and more enjoyable.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small child loved it because at the end they sang the spoony spoony spoony spoon spoon song

[Shanshad Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review first posted at Views from the Tesseract: https://shanshad1.wordpress.com/2015/...

You know, if someone had told me that I’d fall head over heels in love with funny books for young readers in science fiction and fantasy this year, I’d have not believed them. See, while I can appreciate funny and subversive speculative fiction for kids, a lot of it just doesn’t hit my funny bone and satisfy my desire for a good story in one delicious whole. After the slam dunk fantasy Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon earlier this year, I figured I had come out ahead with one book that managed to turn me into a fan. Little did I know that Cakes in Space was lurking in the background, just waiting for the right moment to grab my attention!

In this future space adventure, young Astra’s family is moving to a whole new planet. The catch? That planet is 199 years of travel away, so Astra and her family will be in cold sleep for the trip, only to wake when they arrive. But Astra wants a snack before her snooze and when she makes a request of the ship’s cooking computers, she sets in place a chain of events that will ultimately cause trouble. When a malfunction with her pod causes Astra to wake one hundred years early from her sleep, she discovers the ship is alarmingly off course . . . and there are ferocious, sentient cakes trying to eat her! It’s up to Astra, her robot friend Pilbeam to stop them, keep the ship safe from spoon stealing aliens and get their mission back on track! Wild and wacky fun with a solid dose of science fiction! Perfect for younger readers and reluctant readers. Sarah McIntyre’s engaging illustrations weave through the text and add to the story, creating clever visuals of the the characters, the setting and the technology. Should I be disturbed that she’s so good at drawing malicious cakes with teeth?

I’ve read a whole armful of humorous science fiction for kids in my time. A lot of what’s out there is super-duper silly to the point that the science fiction part gets lost in the mix. The lightweight, Jetson’s approach to the future is often utilized, where the trappings of science fiction are just that–trappings. Kids reading these books will come away with a few impressions of aliens and spaceships and not much else. And Cakes in Space could have gone that route. It didn’t. Philip Reeve introduces readers to oodles of science fiction concepts: cold-sleep, robotic assistants, shuttles from earth to spacecraft, sending humans to colonize planets, food synthesizers, how to move in zero gravity, etc. Or just look at these gorgeous sentences: “The shuttle sped past the space stations that hung like chandeliers above the bright curve of the Earth, with little transport ships flitting between them.” and “It swung past the huge, stripy face of Jupiter, picking up a little extra speed as the huge planet’s gravity caught it and then flung it onward into the dark . . .” They make the science fiction fan in me leap for joy, because this is the kind of writing that made me fall in love with the genre in the first place.

Not that I should be surprised by this, of course, this is Philip Reeve after all, the author who created the Larklight Trilogy and the Hungry City Chronicles both of which manage to handle the science fictional aspects quite smoothly. It’s still impressive for Philip Reeve to deliver whip-smart science fiction in an entertaining package for a younger set of readers.

Oh, and it’s funny. Spoon-stealing aliens, evolving scary cakes funny. The humor isn’t the typical slapstick jokes or gross stuff, but instead a tongue in cheek romp through the galaxy. And while the reading age on this books skews younger, the humor is sophisticated enough to appeal to a broader audience, potentially making it an excellent choice for reading aloud. Astra is a young heroine with a lot of guts and determination. When she finds out the ship is in trouble she’s off to solve it and get help. We first get to experience the science fiction setting through Astra’s eyes, which is useful. As she’s experiencing it, and having key concepts explained or introduced, readers are also learning about these concepts. Thus we get a simple explanation of cold-sleep and why her family will use it to travel to their new home. Without super powers or special talents, Astra still helps save the day and get the ship safely where it needs to go. For added note, Sarah McIntyre’s illustrations make it clear Astra’s part of a biracial family, putting this in the very small–but growing–group of science fiction books for kids that feature diverse main characters.

My one small complaint has to do with the fact that I don’t think it’s ever explained why Astra’s pod malfunctions when no one else’s does. It’s a small thing, all in all, but something that seems convenience rather than explainable plot point. That said, this is a marvelous read, a great science fiction romp, and just the kind of thing to entice new and reluctant readers to give the genre a try!

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW BY OSKAR 8:2

Cakes in Space, is as the title suggests, about an encounter between the main character, Astra, and a group of highly developed cakes. She and her family had been placed into a cryogenic sleep, and we’re set on a nearly two hundred year journey to the far away, newly discovered planet of Nova Mundi, an inhabitable paradise similar to our Earth. In this futuristic tale, robots are in abundance, aiding the human population with a multitude of often challenging tasks. One question that still remained for man to discover, was the ever present possibility of extraterrestrial life.

The main character in the book is a young girl called Astra, just one of the many passengers contained in Hibernation Section C on the transport spaceship en route to Nova Mundi. Ultimately, it is her fault for the whole incident involving the creation of the monstrous cakes, and sending the ship completely off course, and even causing the meeting with the Poglite alien race, and their subject of worship, Broknar. It started when Astra first boarded the ship after departing from Earth in a nimble shuttle. She felt peckish before entering the cryogenic sleep, being directed to the Nom o Tron 9000 Food Synthesizer by her Pilbeam bot. Upon meeting and conversing with said robot, she decides to ask for a cake, using certain descriptive words to specify the quality and type of cake. The Nom o Tron happens to take these descriptions quite literally, and begins attempting to create such a complex cake. The effect of the Nom o Tron taking up so much of the ship’s energy and artificial intelligence, only leads to problems.

My favourite parts of the book were when Astra,meets and befriends various alien beings, and gets to know their qualities, and in certain cases, powers. Throughout thestory, she gains more intelligence on these creatures, and it is only through their invaluable assistance that she is able to put her ship back on track.

My personal favourite character is one particular alien named only as Nameless Horror. I was intrigued by his backstory, in which he was found simply drifting through space, a shapeless, body morphing thing. His abilities in both the art of stealth, and being able to change shape indefinitely were usurped by the Poglites in their search for loot. His background as well as his innocent, heroic personality when helping Astra, makes him an easily likeable character, and I would always wish for him to prevail in any battle.

If I were to say I dislike anything about the book, it would be that it is essentially quite simple, as it is directed to a younger audience. This made certain aspects and sections of the book quite easily predictable, as the layout could be plainly obvious, despite the futuristic, fantasy theme if the story itself. It would be possible however, to make a more advanced edition of this book, as it could be adapted into a teenage horror, in which the main character finds themselves trapped inside an abandoned spaceship, being ruthlessly hunted down by alien creatures of fantastical nature.

I would consider reading a book by these authors again, as I believe they have the talent to generate a more mature story, that would be appealing from my point of view. I enjoyed the grasp of a future world, influenced heavily by robotics, and space travel.

I would recommend this book to those who are still perhaps new to reading, still trying to grasp the concept before moving on to literature of a higher complexity. I believe those of ages between 7 to possibly 11 would find most enjoyment from reading this story, and would learn the most from it.

There is no explicit language or mature themes included in this book, due to the fact that I believe it is aimed at younger children.

I would give this book 3 out of 5 points, but would be inclined to increase this score if it was more to my taste, or if I were a bit younger.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The trouble with space is there's so much of it." I do like that quote, the first sentence of this book.

Astra and her family are traveling from earth to Nova Mundi, a far away planet where they'll make a new home. Nova Mundi is a long way away through almost endless space so to get there, the emmigrants are put into a cryogenic sleep for 199 years. Astra, however, was hungry before she went to sleep and she asked the Nom-O-Tron 9000 (the food synthesizer) to make her the most amazing, super fantastic, ultimate cake ever made. Unfortunately, the Nom-O-Tron 9000 is literal and Astra wakes up halfway through the journey to find the spaceship overrun with carnivorous cakes. And then she finds the space pirates. Lots of adventure ensues but with the help of the Nameless Horror, it all works out fine in the end.

This is a goofy story, appropriate for younger elementary readers or older ones who like easier reading. There are great pictures to move the story forward and there are lots of places to laugh along the way.

[D'ale lui Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prăjituri în spațiu
#224pagini

În acest volum este vorba despre o fetiță pe nume Astra, ce urmează să efectueze alături de familia sa și alți oameni, o călătorie spațială de 199 de ani până la o nouă planetă "Nova Mundi".

După ce au ajuns la bordul navei și se pregătesc de decolare, Astrei i se face foame, se duce în sala de mese și descoperă o mașinărie Nom-oTron care îi poate îndeplinii orice dorință culinară.
După ce i s a îndeplinit prima dorința (un biscuite cu ciocolată delicios) face o comandă "specială " dar pe care nu apuca să o vadă deoarece este condusă la somn.
Se trezește peste 100 de ani și constată 3 lucruri: mașină de făcut mâncare a creat niște dulciuri care o atacată și care se dezvolta într-un ritm rapid, pe nava lor au pătruns niște hoți extratereștri, iar direcția navei a deviat de la cursul stabilit.
Având un ajutor din partea extratereștrilor, reușește să rezolve aceste probleme, mai mult , reușește să-și facă un nou prieten, pe Oroarea fără Nume, iar toți ajung cu bine pe noua planetă

https://youtu.be/FsgXVI1DFS8

[Līga Sproģe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ļoti izklaidējoši, turklāt tagad gribas pārlasīt Marsietis. Sākuma dizains uz melnajām lapām arī radīja Illuminae nostaļģiju.

[Alice Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a silly book full of humorous language and great pictures. Astra is going to live on a new planet with her family, but before they can reach it, chaos strikes as evil cakes infiltrate the spaceship! It’s up to Astra and her robot friend, to save the day.

The book would be perfect for a bubbly year 2 class who would enjoy creating their own space adventures and making warning posters to alert people to the dangers posed by the cakes.

[Matt Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the story was easy to read and follow and allowed your imagination to run wild with humour and possibility. I would certainly read this to Years 2,3 and 4 as I feel it would be best suited to these age groups for the vocabulary and to infer characters and understand the stories plot. Really good book and I definitely recommend it.

[Hila · Rating 5 out of 5]

קסום. קראתי מהתחלה עד הסוף בחצי טיסה. הרעיון נפלא, האיורים מדהימים, והתרגום מעולה.

[Lorna Dounaeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for a second time. All my children love this book. Wish there was a sequel.

[Manuel Taboada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novela infantil para un público a partir de 7-8 años, muy entretenida, sobre una niña que se despierta de la hibernación en mitad de un viaje espacial de 199 años en dirección a un planeta que está siendo colonizado. Poco antes de empezar el viaje, la protagonista siente hambre y solicita al ordenador de la nave que le fabrique un pastel. Al salir de la hibernación descubrirá que su petición ha tenido consecuencias inesperadas.

Aunque muchos de los temas son típicos de la ciencia ficción y los hemos visto innumerables veces en libros y en el cine, el libro engancha por su ritmo acelerado, pues se suceden constantes aventuras durante las cuales la niña demostrará su valentía y su generosidad. A diferencia de mucha de la literatura que se publica hoy para niños, Pastel Espacial mantiene un nivel adecuado de vocabulario, no emplea las habituales referencias a temas escatológicos, ni trata de introducir de tapadillo las doctrinas ideológicas tan en boga actualmente.

[Chris Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it very enjoyable. A good read which the children will most likely enjoy, if they are around the LKS2 age range.
Lots of rich detail in the language, the book helps the reader see and understand all the new wonders Astra is encountering from its language choices.
It is mainly a 3rd person narrative about Astra with speech thrown in between the characters.
The story follows a typical sci-fi plot with humans embarking on a long journey and need to sleep whilst machines run the ship - no problems, until surprise, surpise something goes wrong. This comes in the form of CAKES!
There is lots of humor throughout this book, and many opportunities for teaching to come from it.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Astra is supposed to be asleep for the 150 year voyage to move to another planet with her family. But, it's only 50 years in and she's awake. What's going on? And how did her request for the most awesome cake in the world go?

Why I Read This: Who doesn't love cakes? In space? With illustrations?

Review: I weirdly enjoyed this. It wasn't great literature or anything, but it was fun. I think that a lot of kids would like this. I also want to see if the illustrator does anything that I can buy and hang on a wall.

[4FM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astra and her family had to go to Nova Mundi because there was no space on Earth. She asked for the best cake ever but the dumb machine made lots of monster cakes. Will they defeat the cakes? Find out yourself.

My favourite part was when Astra asked Nom-O-Trom to make a cake that is scarily delicious but the machine made a monster cake. That means Nom-O-Trom doesn't know what a metaphor is and is dumb.

I think what would make it better is if the cakes were in Nova Mundi as well.

I would recommend this to people who like hilarious adventures.

A- Age 9

[Karen Prive · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't often read chapter books - particularly illustrated ones - but I discovered this one on a recent trip to the planetarium. It looked goofy and fun, and I couldn't resist. I just spent the last couple of hours giggling through a delightful tale of evil cakes, scavenger aliens and a young heroine who got far more than she bargained for when she wanted a snack before bed. Additionally, there is a bonus drawing lesson in the back of the book. Definitely recommend for young readers, but bet it would be fun for Mom and Dad (or Grammy) to read along.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss 6 thought this was hilarious and listened to the audiobook eagerly. There are robots,space travel, a female protagonist, LOTS of cake, evil cakes, and even a kind of moral at the end as the cakes consider a higher purpose to existence than fighting / getting eaten.

Miss 6 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.