Join Zack as he takes a trip to the planet Juno, makes an amazing discovery, and learns the importance of teamwork! In Journey to Juno , Zack joins his school’s Explorer’s Club and visits Juno, a newly discovered planet of crystals. The group is split into pairs as they begin exploring, and Zack is less than thrilled when he is partnered with Seth Stevens, the Phase 2 bully! Seth is happy to let Zack do the work while he goofs off, so when Zack stumbles upon a really cool object, he hides it so he can show it to the Explorer’s Club himself. But when the time comes for Zack to accept praise for his discovery, will he decide to share the credit? With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Galaxy Zack chapter books are perfect for beginning readers. K-Gr 2-Students will blast into the future with these exciting books. Moving is hard enough for an eight-year-old boy, but moving to another planet is a cosmic challenge. Zack Nelson's father has accepted a great new job, but it is on the planet Nebulon. Sure, Zack has visited Mars and Venus lots of times, but this is different. His imagination gets the better of him as he dreams of slimy alien classmates that he won't relate to and food that is simply gross. Yet his biggest worry is that he will never be able to communicate with his friends on Earth again. He faces his fears and bravely embraces his new lifestyle. In Juno, Zack is paired with the class bully during a field trip and learns something about himself and Seth. Students will gravitate toward Zack and relate to his concerns and experiences, especially those who have faced a move. The intergalactic setting and futuristic gadgets will keep youngsters enthralled as they delve into reading chapter books on their own. Parents will also enjoy them as read-alouds because the stories are reminiscent of all of the technological advances of the future that they dreamed of and were introduced to by the Jetsons, Star Trek, and other 20th-century hits. On every page, large, gray-scale illustrations add humor and interest to the crisp, clear texts. These fantastically fun titles will add diversity to any collection and will appeal to boys and girls alike.-Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DEα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Ray O’Ryan has loved space stories ever since he watched the very first episode of Star Trek . He loves to imagine what traveling across the galaxy might be like and is a bit jealous of Galaxy Zack in this regard. Colin Jack is originally from Vancouver, Canada, and has illustrated several children’s books. He currently works at DreamWorks Animation as a story artist and character designer and lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two sons. Journey to Juno Chapter 1 Play Ball! Zack Nelson and his friend Drake Taylor sat in the home stadium of the Creston City Comets. A bright orange field spread out below them. “Okay, Drake,” Zack said. “I know I’m still the new kid on Nebulon. And I’ve never seen a galactic blast game before, but I have one question: Where are the players?” Drake smiled and pointed to both sides of the field. Zack looked down and saw two teams of robots. Suddenly a whistle blew, and all the robots scrambled out onto the field. “So people don’t play galactic blast? Robots do?” Zack asked. “The robots pitch and hit and run and field,” explained Drake. “But people operate the robots using remote control units.”