grace needs space!

Art is so powerful – in the present, in memory, and as a part of literature. While I had seen Rii Abrego’s work before (I reviewed Abrego and Joe Whitt’s The Sprite and the Gardener here on the blog!), I wasn’t following her other projects. However, I knew I recognized her art style from somewhere when I found it at SPX (Small Press Expo, an indie comics conference held each fall in Bethesda, Maryland), where author Benjamin A. Wilgus was tabling. I asked a question or two, and was sold immediately on their collaboration: middle grade science fiction graphic novel Grace Needs Space!

 

Grace is SO EXCITED to fly a freighter from her home space station (and away from her BORING mother Evelyn) to a faraway moon! Plus, she'll get some quality time with her FUN mom Kendra--something Grace definitely needs. Finally, a real adventure that Grace can get excited about while the rest of her space station friends go away for their summer vacations.

But when Kendra is too focused on work, Grace's first big trip suddenly becomes kind of lonely. Grace had so many plans for fun. But all it takes is one quick decision to explore the moon by herself before Grace's adventure suddenly becomes not so out of this world at all. With her mom mad at her, Grace wants nothing more than to return home. Then their ship breaks down. Will Grace be able to get through to her mom and save their trip in the end?

Grace is a space-obsessed tween who has been begging to go on a trip with her Ba, a traveller between space stations. To Grace, her Ba lives a life full of mysterious glamour. She, on the other hand, lives a “boring,” stationary life with her other mother, the chief engineer on a space station, and is super excited for a taste of travel and planetary adventure. She’s been anticipating their trip to Titan for so long and built it up in her head… (you can see where this is going). The reality ends up being both more and less exciting than her expectations, in unanticipated ways.

Grace Needs Space! speaks to a lot of universal ideas and themes: growing independence and developing identity, the juxtaposition of curiosity with physical limits, and parents (and adults in general) letting kids down. Wilgus’ story includes one of the most nuanced portrayals of divorced parents that I’ve ever seen in a middle grade book, with believable tension, interactions, and an open-ended conclusion.

Grace is beyond excited for a fun trip with her Ba, Kendra, and instead learns quickly that it is a no-nonsense work trip for her parent. This letdown is the first of several, and while her messages back home to her mother are cheery, the experience isn’t living up to ideas and ideals. While at age 12 she feels grown up, she’s not treated like an adult. Throughout the trip and on Titan, she has lots of free time and freedom, but not in a kid-friendly way. Realizing and reacting to her parents’ differing parenting styles, and being hungry for information and life experience, will resonate with most readers.

Abrego’s art is gorgeous. Her figures cute and stylized, with lots of color, rounded faces, big eyes, and diverse body types, skin colors, and clothing styles. Some of the most impactful panels include Grace’s looks of wonder upon experiencing new things, the gorgeous (and alien!) planetary landscapes, and details of space travel and extra-planetary life. Abrego’s illustrations definitely add depth to the story and complement it perfectly.

In all, Grace Needs Space! is an insightful, beautiful story about the growing pains of coming of age, and the ways in which people and expectations can let us down, or lift us up. It’s also absolute fun and a visual marvel: it contains multitudes!

Recommended for: readers ages 8 and up (though would be perfectly acceptable for younger readers who are reading up), fans of science fiction, and anyone looking for beautifully-illustrated graphic novels.