Phoenix - Hardcover

SF Said (Author) SF Said's first book, Varjak Paw, won the Nestle Smarties Prize for Children's Literature. The sequel,The Outlaw Varjak Paw, won the BBC Blue Peter Book Of The Year. Phoenix is his third book. He has written widely about literature, films and the arts for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph; and works regularly with CLPE, promoting reading and literacy in schools. For more information on SF and his books, please visit www.sfsaid.comDave McKean (Illustrator) Dave McKean has illustrated and designed many ground-breaking books and graphic novels including Varjak Paw (SF Said), The Magic of Reality (Richard Dawkins), The Savage (David Almond) and The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman). He wrote and illustrated Pictures That Tick and the multi-award winning Cages. He has created hundreds of CD and comic covers and directed five short and three feature films.

Gr 6 Up—When Lucky wakes to a scorched bedsheet and the smell of smoke, his mother begins frantically packing his things. She rushes him out of their apartment and to a nearby space station, hoping to catch a flight off Phoenix, the moon they call home. Although desperately asking questions, Lucky can't get his mother to tell him what's wrong, and he is appalled when, after all flights off Phoenix are canceled, she accepts the help of a group of aliens known as Axxa, with whom humans are at war. But learning to trust the four Axxa offering him travel on their ship is only the beginning of Lucky's trek across the war-torn galaxy. He is the key to the conflict between humans and aliens; he just doesn't know it yet. Built around Axxa legends of the Twelve Astraeus, this sci-fi novel follows Lucky from one solar system to the next; Said creates not just a new religion and planet but multiple galaxies with a star at the heart of each, all connected to the Axxa pantheon. As the characters travel, revelations old and new slowly unravel and the secrets of Lucky's own past untangle. However, despite a fleshed-out narrative, captivating black-and-white illustrations, and themes of equality, connection, healing, and creation, Lucky's severe lack of self-confidence and general slow-wittedness may leave readers frustrated and make it difficult to form a bond with him. VERDICT For patient sci-fi fans searching for new characters in a unique world.—Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University, SC