Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth
Tom Fletcher Book Club Selection
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the 2017 Carnegie Medal and selected for the Tom Fletcher Book Club, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an adventure about the Blythes: a big, warm, rambunctious family who live on a small farm and sometimes foster children. Now Prez has come to live with them. But, though he seems cheerful and helpful, he never says a word.
Then one day Prez answers the door to someone claiming to be his relative. This small, loud stranger carries a backpack, walks with a swagger and goes by the name of Sputnik. The family all think Sputnik is a dog and chaos is unleashed as suddenly household items come to life – like a TV remote that fast-forwards people and a toy lightsaber that entertains guests at a children's party, until one of them is nearly decapitated by it – and Prez is going to have to use his voice to explain himself.
As Sputnik takes Prez on a journey to finish writing his guidebook to Earth called Ten Things Worth Doing on Earth, each adventure seems to take Prez nearer to the heart of the family he is being fostered by, but they also take him closer to the day that he is due to leave them forever . . .
This edition features fantastic cover artwork and black and white inside illustrations from the incredible Steven Lenton.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Prez Mellows lives with his increasingly forgetful grandfather until an incident that results in Granddad being sent away to be "sorted out." Prez, electively mute, is taken in by the Blythes, a raucous farm family on Scotland's southern border. Though the premise sounds grim, Boyce's (The Astounding Broccoli Boy) story is anything but, and it's kick-started by the arrival of Sputnik, a being visible to Prez as a "wee alien in a kilt and goggles," and to everyone else as an adorable and exceedingly clever dog. Sputnik's mission is to save Earth from impending doom by finding 10 worthy things about the planet to update a guidebook, originally written by Laika, the Russian space dog. His advanced knowledge of scientific principles combines with a penchant for mischief to produce an avalanche of kooky mayhem (working lightsabers are involved). It's a funny and touching story about a boy who, through a transformative summer, learns to expand his definitions of family and home. "Home's not a building," as Sputnik tells Prez. "Home is other people, isn't it?" Ages 8 12.
Customer Reviews
Funny
😂