Space Pirate Bears
Alastair Chisholm and Jez Tuya
Walker Books

Wet weather, two bored children and a Dad busy working are the starting points for this wildly inventive tale. It’s Dad that does most of the inventing with tragedy in the form of a black hole, a Sniffle attack, a possible wave of alien broccoli, being averted. But there’s also the dreaded Doctor Drab whose aim in life is to turn the entire universe as dull as he is, by means of his terrifying Boron Beam. A hit from said weapon’s beam drained every scrap of fun out of the galaxy 

but there was somebody who just might with help, repel those forces of dullness and that was Princess Leonora and her heroic, multi-skilled, Space Pirate Bears.

At this point in Dad’s story, the two children, Jamie and Abby intervene and have a squabble about the direction it should take. 

Can they come to an agreement that puts paid to the Dok’s dastardly Boron Beam, leaving the Space Pirates to reign supreme and thus, the world able to revert to a place of fun?

A place of fun is an apt description for what is between the covers of this book. Both Alastair Chisholm’s words and Jez Tuya’s pictures epitomise the delights of story making, the former providing a humorous, twisting turning, action-packed adventure for the latter to play around with in his inventive scenes. A smashing book, especially for Dads to share with their offspring: inspired by the family in the story. Who knows what wild storytelling adventures of their own might result?