The Space Walk

A selfie is worth a thousand words in this tribute to the exhilaration of getting outside and making new friends by Biggs (What Kind of Car Does a T. Rex Drive?). It’s boring as all get-out in the space ship, but not-so-vaguely parental Ground Control won’t let astronaut Randolph Witherspoon take a spacewalk until he eats lunch (brussels sprouts in a pouch), exercises and tidies, and receives a barrage of rules (“Dress warmly, don’t forget your camera, and... don’t talk to strangers”). Sound familiar? Outside the ship, there’s much to photograph, and as the story goes wordless, Randolph meets an alien who’s as much into goofy selfies as he is. (Their space-wear also shares the same chunky, adorable dome shape.) Randolph never technically “talks” to this alien stranger, but the photographs they take together help him look forward to a less lonely tomorrow. Biggs’s digital pictures juxtapose the brightly lit, dully safe capsule, festooned with gizmos, dials, and screens, against the marvels of space. The landscape offers not just a new friend but also an intergalactic portrait filled with fluorescent planets of many stripes—and a few polka dots, too. Ages 3–7. [em]Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.) [/em]