The Spectacular Space Loop

Testing the new jetpack his family built, Cosmo winds up lost in space, his journey back home introducing him to new friends and facing him with various trials and opponents. If that seems pretty straightforward, rest assured that-true to its name The Spectacular Space Loop is absolutely not a straight narrative line, and it isn't simply the plot that will have visually minded readers returning over and over to obsessively reexamine every detail of its grand design. The last page, you see, only gets you through the first half of the story. You must flip the book over to get the second half of the story, which loops back through those same pages and panels, now upside down. It's not just an efficient use of pages and panels but also a transformation of the entire visual experience. Cosmo's rescuer in the first half flips over to become a heinous enemy in the second; a dance flips over to become a fight; and entire environments flip over to become creatures, presenting a gob smacking manipulation of visual space that hearkens back to MAD magazine fold-ins. More than a fun, fast space adventure, it's a triumph of design that will open a world of new possibilities to readers with strong visual art inclinations, and also a lesson in the value and potential of physical books. -- Jesse Karp * Booklist STARRED Review * A boy encounters curious creatures on a strange galactic journey. Cosmo is ready to test a jet pack prototype, but things go haywire as soon as it's activated. Thrust deep into swirling space, he's found by a purple creature who looks distinctly like an upside-down light bulb and who turns out to be most hospitable, offering Cosmo nachos and a place to rest. Soon, a careless push of a button sends Cosmo hurtling headlong into a lush jungle, where he discovers a wiggly white bloblike creature in search of its family. The pair proceed to a bustling city, where they narrowly evade a great green sewer monster and meet a bald, bearded, pink-skinned magician who vows to send them homeward. His specious spell simply flips them topsy-turvy, and the story literally turns upside down as well. Youngsters must then flip the book over, reading from back to front and viewing the peculiar planetary passage in a new light-the seemingly bald magician grows a full head of hair, frowns become smiles, and a sinister skull cracker replaces the harmless nachos-but all is made right in the end. De Castro's creative concept is impressively executed; each image must work turned on its head, and it does. Moreover, Cosmo's interstellar odyssey is so fun and fully realized that readers will intuitively understand what's going on, making it a page-turner, twice over. In De Castro's squared-off, thick-lined cartoon artwork, Cosmo is light-skinned and wears a spacesuit throughout. A wild ride with a wonderfully weird cast of creatures. * Kirkus Reviews Starred Review * Everything changes when you change your perspective,"" writes Spanish creator de Castro in this charming graphic novel debut, which offers two interstellar adventures linked by a formatting twist [...] Straightforward paneling populated by friendly-faced characters is rendered via thick line art enlivened by a boldly saturated color palette that recalls rounded Playmobil aesthetics. Opening instructions prompt readers to, at journey's end, return to the story's beginning and flip the book upside down; the perspective shift impels the audience on a brand-new adventure, which uses color-coded dialogue balloons to change the context of familiar but inverted scenes. Though the upended scenarios don't always fully translate, Cosmo's free-wheeling, low-conflict quest to reunite with his friends culminates in a cheerful jaunt through space and back again... * Publisher's Weekly *