I. Love. This. Book.

I want to shout it from the rooftops. Beautiful illustrations. Fantastic imagery and imagination. Powerful female as the main character! I’m in. I can’t wait to read this with my kiddos.

I absolutely adored this amazing book starring a girl in STEM who dreams of space! This little girl just wants to spend all day thinking about space! She loves everything about it. She reads about, pretends to be there, floats in water, and invents new space worlds! Her biggest dream is to invent a way to get herself there. One day she decides to make it! She works hard and eventually has a big launch into space!

This book was absolutely amazing. I loved that it had a beautiful diverse character. I loved the stunning illustrations. It celebrated going after your dreams and a growth mindset. It was truly a fantastic book!

I'm sad to say that this book didn't work for me at all. I enjoy Josée Bisaillon's artwork, and thought this book sounded interesting. But it's a story I've seen before, and it wasn't done particularly well here.

Some of these issues may be down to the translation. (This appears to be a translation of the original French text.) Early in the book, it's stated that Esther wants to "visit" the Milky Way. Wouldn't a space-obsessed kid know that she's already in it? Perhaps a better word would've been "explore". The text is clunky in spots, too:

The spaceship takes off, high in the sky, leaving behind a dusty cloud as it reaches for the stars.

The way that's worded implies that the launchpad was in the sky. (Perhaps it should've read "high into the sky" instead to avoid confusion.)

I also don't buy that Esther is that obsessed with space. If she is, her obsession is more sci-fi than science. A kid who reads lots of books about space would not wonder if there were alien girls on Mars reading books about Earth; she would probably be able to educate you on the Mars rover programs instead. And someone who's read lots of books about space would not think that the Northern Lights are a band of green floating out in the middle of space with Earth in the distance; she'd know they're in the Earth's magnetosphere. (I hate to say it, but it almost seems like there wasn't enough research done before writing and illustrating this one. If you're going to write about a kid with an obsession with a particular topic, you need to be even more knowledgeable about the topic than they are!)

The illustrations are fun and fancy, done in Bisaillon's signature style that incorporates illustration with collage. The style of the pictures is lovely. I just wish they had been more accurate in certain places.

I loved this book. From the very beginning, I was immediately hooked. Stayed up all night to finish it and am glad I did!

The cover illustration caught my eye and the rest of the book is just as good. Follow Esther as she explains her love of outer space and her attempt to get there. The book is charming. The illustrations are fabulous.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this storybook about a young girl who dreams about traveling to outer space. Full of ideas and ambition she decides to make a spaceship.
The story has beautiful and imaginative pictures, it is a perfect book for young children desiring to give wings to their dreams.