Space Band

by Tom Fletcher

The out-of-this-world new adventure from number-one-bestselling author of The Danger Gang and The Christmasaurus: Tom Fletcher.

George, Neila and Bash are the worst band on Earth. George wants them to be brilliant - but Neila has stage fright, and Bash is too distracted by his obsession with stars, aliens and faraway planets. But what they lack in talent and confidence, they make up for in heart.

They're determined to blow their friends away at their school Battle of the Bands contest. But the moment they start to play...

They're beamed up into space!!!

Now the kids face an even bigger challenge: Battle of the Bands, but the intergalactic version. They're competing against alien bands from every galaxy! And if they don't win, they might never make it home again...

Can the worst band on Earth become the best band in the universe?

An intergalactically awesome tale of celebrating difference, believing in yourself, and the power of friendship.

Genres: Science Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Audiobook, Space

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tom Fletcher is one of the UK's most popular children's authors. Tom's books have been translated into 41 languages and to date he has sold over 6 million copies of his books in the UK alone, and 10 million globally.

The Christmasaurus was the biggest debut children's novel of 2016 and was shortlisted for a British Book Award. Since then, Tom has published several more chart-topping children's novels, including The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List, The Creakers and the instant number-one bestseller The Danger Gang.

For younger readers, Tom writes the incredibly successful Who's in Your Book? picture-book series and is one half of the author duo behind the Dinosaur that Pooped picture-book series with bandmate Dougie Poynter.

For older readers, Tom co-authors the Eve of Man series with his wife, Giovanna Fletcher.

As well as his career as an author, Tom is also a founding member of the Brit Award-winning band McFly, which has sold over 10 million records worldwide.

Reviews

[Emily May · Rating 2 out of 5]

The kids loved The Creakers and The Danger Gang but didn't care for this one. Maybe we'll try again in a year or so.

[Marie the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, very fun and entertaining and I absolutely love the soundtrack! Perfect for fans of music!

[Bekka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biased as I'm a big McFly fan, but this was so much fun!
The references to McFly, Tom's family and other musicians were brilliant, and the story line was inventive and fun too!
Definitely one for music obsessed and space obsessed kids!
TW for imprisonment, parental separation, bullying.

[Dragana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
Kako je ovo bilo kul. Skroz neočekivano!
Muzika je isto sjajna 🤘⭐️

[Cheryl Brydon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 7 year old and me loved this. The QR codes to songs were fun!

[Elin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very good for people who like things that are out of this world.There are lots of songs that get stuck in your head very easly!

[Paris King · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Rating from my 4 year old son) "I love the songs in the book! I really liked George, Bash, Armstrong, Neila and Star Girl. Megavolt was abit scary and angry because he's very big but now he's exploded. It was a rock star book and I loved reading it, especially the bit where megavolt nearly put his fist on the red button to eclipse all the planets. I'm going to dress as George for world book day at school" 😊

[Dannie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to my 2 children, one of whom is only just starting to enjoy chapter books and they both loved it from start to finish. The songs were awesome and ridiculously catchy spent weeks singing nothing rhymes with sausage 😅 but I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone lots of fun had all round 🥰 now to buy a second copy so they can read it at the same time 😂

[Veronique Pauwels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toen ik tussen de boekenkeuzes van mijn secret Santa (@eefsreading ) deze Ruimterockers zag staan, kocht ik hem onmiddellijk dubbel. Ik wist dat dit een leuke buddyread zou kunnen opleveren. En ik had gelijk!
Dit is niet mijn eerste boek van Tom Fletcher. Hij heeft me al iedere keer zowel met zijn jeugdboeken als met zijn prentenboeken weten te bekoren.
En je hoeft nog maar te kijken naar die cover en je weet dat dit weer een schot in de roos wordt. Niet twijfelen, maar ga hem gewoon ook zelf lezen. Wat een hilarisch boek! Billy Bones dit it again!
De drie vrienden : Sjors, Neila en Ram zitten samen in een rockband: “De Aardbewoners.” Niet de beste onder de rockers, maar ze zijn wel heel gedreven. Zij willen iedere kans benutten om een optreden van Max Volume bij te wonen. Dus wanneer er op school een rock competitie is, doen “De Aardbewoners” uiteraard mee. Maar eenmaal op het podium worden ze de ruimte ingestraald.
Hilarische situaties volgen elkaar op. Je kan geen twee bladzijden lezen zonder luidop te gaan lachen. Dit wil ik je gewoon al meegeven, om storende situaties in de klas te vermijden. Het zal niet de fout van de lezertjes zijn.
De afwisseling tussen tekst, tekeningen, strips, vergroot lettertype, en woorden die nog groter en vetgedrukt worden, zorgen ervoor dat je als surfend doorheen deze hardcover gaat.
Tom heeft ervoor gekozen om de hoofdstukken niet te lang te maken, een ideale keuze voor de jongere lezer. Maar dit hoeft geen eindpunt te zijn, stuur je boekenwurm niet met de keuze om nog een hoofdstuk te lezen in zijn bed. Want gegarandeerd zal die nog aan het lezen zijn als jij je bed ingaat.
Ik heb enorm genoten van het boek, het verhaal, de illustraties en de vele grappige woordkeuzes. Proficiat aan de vertaler. Voor sommigen zullen de liedjes die de kinderen via de Qr codes kunnen beluisteren ook een sterk punt zijn.
Die liedjes had ik dan ook liever niet vertaald gezien. Kinderen kunnen tegenwoordig heel wat woordjes Engels lezen. En kon als uitdaging gezien worden.
Mijn kinderen keken alvast uit, wanneer mijn recensie online kwam. Niet om die review te lezen, maar wel het boek. Ik weet zeker dat sommigen van mijn klas zullen smullen van dit verhaal.
En aan mijn medebuddyreaders : Eefje, eline, minibieb, Mariska, nikki : spreken we af dat we de volgende Tom Fletcher ook samen lezen?

[Timothy Burbage · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up.

This isn't as good as the other Tom Fletcher books for a few reasons.

1. The art isn't as evocative as other books, and the style is more cartoony. This undermines the threat of the villain and the wonder of the aliens.

2. The songs are all from the kid's band. This makes sense as the book is his book of rock and contains his song ideas. The problem is that you get all but the last song in the first quarter of the book. Also when the band go into space, you don't get any songs from the intergalactic battle of the bands. Huge opportunity missed.

3. It takes way too long to get going. 80 odd pages before they go into space. My daughter was bored so we gave up reading it to her and concentrated on reading it to my son.

This was a 2-star book until there were some cool reveals, nice callbacks, and a really nice message at the end.

But man, what a missed opportunity with the songs.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally could read it in English, Dutch translation was just NOT working. This was a fun book about the worst band of Earth (well according to their neighbours) being beamed up to compete in a competition... for the survival of their planet! There is music, aliens, a secret (which wasn't that secret as I figured out Neila quite early on), band-battles, life debts, a big scary star with a bigger attitude, fun illustrations, good characters, a chimp named Armstrong, lots of excitement, a great ending that made me cheer and laugh.

[Aimée Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was lucky enough to meet Tom Fletcher in person and get a copy signed, so I was looking forward to reading this one! After the huge success of The Christmasaurus, any other book will always be compared and this one just wasn't anywhere near as good! I really liked the concept behind the story, especially given Tom's background being in McFly and his interest in aliens. But I felt the middle of the story lost its way and didn't make an awful lot of sense. Luckily the ending was great and made up for it I think. Now I've finished it, it'll be going up on display in school! 3.5 stars!

[C.t.ryan.98 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this. It is extremely clever, mixing music and science with fun and high jinks. There are QR codes taking you to songs in the book, which are also great, and add a wonderful extra direction. Both parent and child loved it. All the threads are woven together beautifully, so you half guess at what's going to happen, but Tom Fletcher makes everything still a slightly twisted surprise.

[Sam Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me and my daughter loved this book. We all love the songs.

[Sofia Chinchilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

So rock n roll

[Dreximgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay but not my fave Tom Fletcher book. I liked some of the twists but overall it wasn't as engaging as previous books.

[Samantha Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book from Tom Fletcher. He is one of my favourite authors. I’ve not read a book I don’t like of his yet! You really engage with the readers and keep them gripped. Keep writing books Tom, because you are awesome at it. I loved how he brings all the characters together in this one and how being different isn’t a bad thing.

[Emma-Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book and we loved the QR codes added into the pages to be able to listen to the songs!

[Ivanna Velychynska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Це наша п'ята книга Флетчера. Ми дуже любимо його історії, а ця просто особлива.
Дуже класно, що музикант врешті написав книгу про музику. Пісні, записані спеціально для цієї історії стали улюбленим саундтреком моєї дочки.

[Amanda VZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

my kiddo and I loved the book. loved the interactive part and now we listen to all the songs in the car. thanks for another adventure Tom!

[Sunny Curzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to my 10 year old son and we both absolutely loved it!! It had him gripped and we enjoyed scanning the QR codes to hear the songs performed by McFly.

[Hâf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for the story. The inclusion of the songs performed by McFly in the audiobook was a really cool idea.. but it doesn't really work when you listen at x2 speed and you just get a garbled song.

[Poppy Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is AMAZE-BALLS!!!!!!!!!!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

De boeken van Tom zijn altijd bijzonder om te lezen, de illustraties ondersteunen het verhaal zee zeker. De magie van de Christmasaurus mis ik wel een beetje in dit boek.

Maar het idee is leuk. George, Bash en Neila zijn de slechtste band op aarde, maar kunnen ze de beste band van het heelal worden om meerdere planeten waaronder de aarde te redden? Tijdens de deelname aan battle of th bands op hun school worden ze het heelal in gezogen om mee te doen aan battle of the bands galaxy stijl.

Het boek is vlot en aansprekend geschreven.
De QR codes die je kan scannen zodat je de muziek kan beluisteren van de lyrics die George schreef is een erg cool idee. De muziek is opgenomen door Tom en zijn and McFly en voegt zeker iets extra's toe aan het verhaal.

[Izzy Greaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combining my 3 favourite things: space, music and McFly, I was very excited to be delving into Tom Fletcher's latest writing project. Amongst the McFly easter eggs and fascinating facts about space, the seemingly lighthearted story turns into a rather sweet tale about self-confidence, acceptance and celebrating differences. However, what makes this book stand out is the electric soundtrack that accompanies it, offering a great hook to encourage children to read with the promise of occasional music breaks. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be exploring Fletcher's other work and considering how I can use his writing in the classroom.

[Biebjuf Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaja! 5 sterren. Die krijg je van mij niet zomaar, maar deze heeft het wel echt verdiend. Wat een leuk, vrolijk, spannend maar vooral fantasievol verhaal. Echt een boek voor mij. ;-)
Leest alsof je naar een Marvelfilm kijkt, maar dan zonder al dat geweld. Of eigenlijk wel: maar dan met muzikaal geweld!
En je leert nog weetjes over de ruimte ook!

De Engelstalige playlist van McFly is ook fantastisch. Jammer dat de Nederlandse vertaling van de liedjes erg ver van de Engelse tekst vandaan ligt. Als je het wilt combineren - luisteren wanneer een nummer in het boek voorkomt - irriteert dat wel. Maar dat doet niets af aan het verhaal op zich.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’re big Tom Fletcher fans in this house having loved all his other books, but felt a little disappointed with this one. I’m also not a fan of the QR codes to listen to the songs sung by McFly - reading time in our house is usually before bed and I didn’t want to encourage screen time then! My son therefore had to put up with my attempt at singing the lyrics and ignoring the QR codes altogether!

[Chrissi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this new book from Tom Fletcher. His books are so easy to read and I know the children in my school will lap up this book. It has an amazing added bonus of having songs accessible with a QR code! I’m thinking of using it in a book club.

Fun with diverse characters. Well worth a read.

[Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh we loved this one- space and (McFly) music, my daughter’s favourites. We read it alongside the album so we could play the songs at the right time as they appeared in the sorry. Very funny and poignant, thrilling and moving. Now we’re just sad that we’ve read all
of Tom’s books and need to try and patiently wait for the next one.

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a happy-go-lucky story about friendship, love and accepting people for who they are. It wasn’t the greatest book I’ve read, but it was still enjoyable from the first page to the last. I really liked the humour and the illustrations because they brought a lot to the story. The plot was easy to understand and I loved all the characters.