Liam has always felt a bit like he's stuck between two worlds. This isprimarily because he's a twelve-year-old kid who looks like he's about thirty. Sometimes it's not so bad, like when his new principal mistakes him for a teacher on the first day of school or when he convinces a car dealer to let him take a Porsche out on a test drive. But mostly it's just frustrating, being a kid trapped in an adult world. And so he decides to flip things around. Liam cons his way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space, a special flight for a group of kids and an adult chaperone, and he is going as the adult chaperone. It's not long before Liam, along with his friends, is stuck between two worlds again—only this time he's 239,000 miles from home. Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of Millions and Framed, brings us a funny and touching story of the many ways in which grown-upness is truly wasted on grown-ups. *Starred Review* Liam is a big lad. So big that strangers mistake the 12-year-old for an adult. Even his teachers seem to conflate tall with old. So heaven forbid he should ever make a mistake. Then it’s all, “You should know better, big lad like you.” Life sure is hard for poor, burdened Liam (did I mention the Premature Facial Hair?)—until, that is, he decides to enter the Greatest Dad Ever Contest and in short order finds himself on a rocket ship that is off course and 200,000 miles above the earth. Yes, quite a few things—some of them cosmic and all of them extremely funny—do happen in between. Boyce is a Carnegie Medal–winning author, after all (for Millions, 2004), and he knows how to tell a compellingly good story. But in his latest extravagantly imaginative and marvelously good-natured novel he has also written one that is bound to win readers’ hearts, if not a clutch of big prizes—though Cosmic was shortlisted for both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize when it was published in England. There are lots of surprises in Liam’s story, and without spoiling any of them by saying more, just know that this is not only a story about big lads, but also about dads and dadliness! Grades 4-7. --Michael Cart “Cottrell Boyce has a gift for suspending disbelief, for laugh-out-loud comedy. “Cosmic” is Liam’s favorite term of approval. It applies to this book.” - London Times “Hilariously inventive. Frank Cottrell Boyce makes you laugh and think about parents and growing up, about the goodness of gravity and the infinite stars.” - Washington Post “His third novel, and his best yet. Hugely funny and utterly gripping.” - The Guardian “In his latest extravagantly imaginative and marvelously good-natured novel, [Frank Cottrell Boyce has] written one that is bound to win readers’ hearts. This is not only a story about big lads, but also about dads and dadliness!” - Booklist (starred review) “[Frank Cottrell Boyce] has created a riveting, affecting, sometimes snortingly funny “what-if” scenario. Liam’s musings on what it takes to be a good, responsible father are dryly comical but also charmingly earnest. A high-levity zero-gravity romp.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A hilarious and heartfelt examination of “dadliness” in all its forms. A can’t-miss offering from an author whose latest novel may be his best yet.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A story of human possibility with a lot of adventure, or an adventure with full credit given to human possibility? Either way, it’s a fantastic, funny, and moving novel. Celebrates not only the spirit of exploration but the human connectedness that allows it to flower.” - Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) “Readers will appreciate the sharp, realistic, and very funny dialogue.” - School Library Journal (starred review) “Stunningly original…the concept is immediately booktalkable and the telling is riveting; a book of such wealth―of any kind―is valuable indeed.” - Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review), for Millions “This superb humorous and inventive “cosmic” adventure celebrated space travel, friendships, and dads.” - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review) “Truly a masterpeice.” - School Library Journal (starred review), for Framed “With echoes of Roald Dahl . . . the novel ends with an elegant punch line, and a touching endorsement of filial love.” - New York Times Book Review Liam has always felt a bit like he's stuck between two worlds. This isprimarily because he's a twelve-year-old kid who looks like he's about thirty. Sometimes it's not so bad, like when his new principal mistakes him for a teacher on the first day of school or when he convinces a car dealer to let him take a Porsche out on a test drive. But mostly it's just frustrating, being a kid trapped in an adult world. And so he decides to flip things around. Liam cons his way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space, a special flight for a group of kids and an adult chaperone, and he