GRACE NEEDS SPACE!

A trip deep into space forces a preteen to reevaluate her assumptions about her parents.

Space is infinite, but it doesn’t feel so for 12-year-old Grace, a child of divorce who lives at Genova Station with her mother Evelyn, an engineer who fusses over her and makes her do chores. Grace is excited because she’s finally off to spend time with Kendra (her other, seemingly more fun mom, a freighter captain who helms her own ship) on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. But onboard Kendra’s ship, Grace finds that she’s left to entertain herself. Things don’t ease up when they get to Titan, where adventure and mayhem await. Grace begins to question her perceptions about Kendra and Evelyn, realizing that normal doesn’t equal boring. This hip graphic novel rockets into space, with fun facts and lots of science talk. The illustrations are beautiful, deftly using panels to show Grace’s isolation and disappointment and her awe at space. While the book balances out toward the end when it comes to the two parents, overall it comes across as championing Evelyn, making Kendra out to be a bit self-involved and work-focused. Still, this tale does a stellar job depicting a family with same-sex parents whose love for their child is apparent despite their divorce. Grace and Evelyn are brown-skinned; Kendra is light-skinned and uses the honorific Mx.

A tender story that explores the complexity of familial bonds as deftly as it does the outer regions of space.