Books of Wonder

Astronautical!

Astronautical! - Main image
$8.49 $16.99 In stock

Category: Products

A fun and twisty middle-grade graphic novel debut about an intergalactic rescue mission, for fans of Steven Universe and Zita the Spacegirl.

A century ago, planet Zephyr exploded under mysterious circumstances. Ever since, generations have been living out their lives on the remaining floating planet chunks.

Brothers Max and Lari and their father Captain Cherryhair deliver goods around the galaxy on their spaceship—until their father is suddenly kidnapped by the fox minions of Cynosure, the Planet Breaker.

Luckily, a couple of stars with a ferryboat business offer to help the brothers on their rescue mission. But when Max sustains a life-threatening black hole injury, little brother Lari finally has to step up and take care of his chronically in-charge big brother.

Will Lari be able to figure out the secret of the broken planet and face the powerful Cynosure? Can he save not only his brother, but the people of Zephyr too?

Astronautical! is packed with quirky characters and exciting adventures, where wooden mast ships sail through space (totally not real science), whales are spaghettified by black holes (kind of real science), and comets travel through time (absolutely real science).

Customer Reviews (5.0 / 5 · 5 reviews)

Ellie M. ★★★★★

My kid devoured this in one sitting and immediately started rereading it, which says a lot since she's picky about graphic novels. The art style has that warm, Steven Universe vibe, and the pacing on the rescue mission is spot-on for a middle-grader who's new to longer stories.

Avery ★★★★★

The twisty plot kept me guessing even as an adult—the mystery behind Zephyr's explosion is genuinely clever. My daughter loved that the art has that same cozy, expressive vibe as her favorite Steven Universe episodes, and we've already reread it twice.

Sebastian ★★★★★

My kid tore through this in one sitting, which never happens, and the whole rescue-mission setup with the exploded planet pulled us both in from the first pages. The art has that Steven Universe warmth but with a snappier pace, and even the side characters get little moments that made me chuckle.