A review by unfettered_reading
Spaceboy by David Walliams

3.5

📱 - The story takes place during the 1960’s space race. Ruth, a young orphan,  lives with her cruel aunt on a farm in America and dreams of space. One day a flying saucer crashes on the farm. Ruth rescues Spaceboy from the burning saucer and an adventure full of hi-jinks and fun ensues.

✔️         Ruth and Spaceboy are both smart and feisty, while the adults are varying degrees of mean, stupid and incompetent

✔️       Yuri the three-legged dog stole my heart

✔️      Lots of silly, over the top action make for a fast moving plot

✔️       Comic style illustrations and words printed in different sizes and fonts break up big blocks of text, making the book approachable to young readers.

✔️        Sounds! I loved the way the sound words felt in my brain

✔️      That brief final scene with Dr Shock tugged surprisingly hard at my heartstrings

✔️      The ending!!

✔️         Historical facts about the space race at the end

🔵         Some of the plot felt padded out to make the book longer and I saw the twist coming a mile away

 🔵        I struggled to connect with the characters at times

🔵        The book relies on potty humour rather than wit (this is a personal preference, though! I know lots of kids and adults who would love this humour

3.6 ⭐ - well worth the read