Blurb: Astrid Atomic, a 6 year old human person, goes to bed every night like every other 6 year old human person. But unlike many other 6 year olds she doesn’t stay there. The minute the lights are off and the coast is clear the Space Cadet siren goes off, her uniform goes on, and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - WHOOSH! - she blasts off on board the spaceship Stardust!

Along with her best pals Beryl, Professor Quackers and Zoink, Astrid is given her mission from The Chief - to clean up the Milky Way! But when a nearby alien is in trouble and with giant snaliens around, things aren’t likely to go to plan!

Review:
Alex T Smith is essentially a deity in our house. Producer of the glorious Claude books and purveyor of Winston the Mouse advent stories (and much more) a proof copy of his latest was an Event (tm) for us.

This latest chapter book for younger readers doesn’t disappoint.

Astrid is a delight, the missions set by her boss The Chief (visually, a demented cross between Linda Belcher and Ginger Johnson) are fun and light - so as to allow for maximum fun and camp and her crew are just delicious. My favourite is Beryl (from the planet Spangle, obviously) who is just a form of my spirit animal.

Smiths art is whimsical and inventive, with details to be pored over on re-reads and the writing is witty and light and perfect to be read out loud. The stakes aren’t overwhelming and the tone is cheeky. It’s like a golden age sci fi adventure crossed with the muppets.

I am TOTALLY here for another adventure with this crew.

Just what the young reader, choosing a book with full-sized chapters and things for the first time, needs is NOT Pronoun Mangling Indoctrination 101 courtesy of an alien critter, as here. That and the title character having two dads was almost enough to make me bin this as too woke to be worth bothering with. That is as far as it goes down that rabbit-hole, mind – but it doesn't get much further on the path to quality. Somehow our Astrid can go without sleep on a nightly basis, as she zaps off to space, and sorts things out like a good Space Cadet. But here the mission is just trying to clean up the space junk on the edge of the Milky Way when they get an SOS.

The emergency is that someone's garden planet has been invaded by snailiens that will eat her prize-winning pink space potatoes. There's a bit of a hoo-hah there, mostly involving lasers and explosions and turnipy smells, before the whole thing wraps itself up in pretty predictable ways. And it's all just OK – silly fun with the eye to the nonsensical and the 'well, anything can happen in space, whether it makes sense for it to happen in a book or not' attitude. You can't say the Cadets work as a team, as they're too diverse and silly and do that Groot thing of pronouncing everything imaginable the exact same way. At best this is a three star effort, marked down due to the needless confusion I mentioned at the top.

To all intents and purposes, Astrid looks like an ordinary human girl. She lives at home on Planet Earth with her dads and every night, she snuggles in bed ready to go to sleep.....or does she?

When the clock strikes midnight, Astrid leaps out of bed into her wardrobe (which conveniently doubles as an Intergalactic Transporter Pod) and heads just around the corner from the moon to meet the Space Cadets.

The Chief sends them out on their latest mission to clean up the Milky Way which the Space Cadets think will be super speedy but when they arrive they are dismayed to find it is absolutely full of junk. There are even some smelly old socks floating around! Luckily, Prof Quackers seems to have the answer, he will shrink the rubbish down so that they can simply sweep it all up. He produces a Shrink Blaster, it just needs a little rewangling with the rewangler and all systems will be go.

The team are interrupted by a distress call from Flora Mulch on Planet Hortensis. Rule 1 of the Space Cadets is: Always be a helper outer, so off they dash to Flora's aid. Her beautiful planet full of lush, green plants is under attack from.... SNAILIENS! Not only that but it is the Interplanetary Country Fair and her Astro Spuds are in the running for first prize. The Space Cadets employ their second rule: Be Brave, and use Beryl as bait when the Shrink Blaster backfires and makes the Snailiens GINORMOUS.

Will the Space Cadets save the day and get rid of the Snailiens? Will Planet Hortensis survive the attack? Will Flora Mulch win first prize in the Oversized Galactic Vegetable Competition? Will the Milky Way ever be clear of debris?

This is a great book for newly confident readers age 7-9.

Alex T Smith has written something full of adventure, gorgeous illustrations and pure fun here! Who wouldn’t want to be a space cadet helping clean up planets and save gardens from snailiens?! This is going to be a real hit with kids (and certainly is with me!) I can’t wait to see the finished illustrations if these proof versions are anything to go off!