Once again, Horn’s descriptions of life in space steal the show. As Eudora muses on how the ship’s recreational activities are changed by her discovery—soccer, that “ancient Earth game with polkadot balls” is fun, but the players are being injured by the new oval-shaped balls—she vows to distract her friends and family from their problems. Her newest bigger-than-life idea is to engineer a snow day for the ship, by breaking into the weatherman’s computer and adjusting his forecast to predict an incoming storm. Obviously, that news throws the ship into chaos, especially when the model malfunctions and forecasts up to 150 feet of snow in one day.
Of course, Eudora ultimately jumps in to clean up her mess and learns some valuable lessons in the process, including how playing tricks on others can have unintended consequences—and why the value of pi should probably be left alone. Tondora delights with entertaining black and white illustrations that showcase Eudora’s side-splitting exploits, and Horn includes a tutorial on measuring pi in the backmatter. To top off all the fun, Eudora lands a job as the ship’s “official backup weather kid” in the end, a pretty good feat for the galaxy’s most audacious space kid.
Takeaway: Intergalactic adventure that pairs inventive fun with important life lessons.
Comparable Titles: J.I. Wagner’s Legacy of the Inventor, Stuart Gibbs’s Spy Camp.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A