Spacekid iLK

Hammond's hilarious story and illustrations will relate to both children and adults. iLK is growing up on his parent's spaceship travelling from planet to planet. All he wants to do is care for his plants and survive his youth. All his parents want is for him to grow up and learn responsibility. His father and iLK share a lot of qualities that iLK is too young to accept, but as his mother says, "Like father, like son."

His father has been assigned a task on Earth, and it is a task that he does not want to do, so he (really iLK's mother) decides to put iLK in charge of Earth and determine if it should be destroyed. While on Earth, iLK learns that maybe responsibility and growing up isn't such a bad thing after all, and that there is a lot of good on Earth. Unfortunately, his father does not want to hear these things.

Spacekid iLK is the first book in a series and I cannot wait to read the others when they are published. There are a lot of great characters in this graphic novel, but my favorite has to be the Y-bot. It is a robot that follows iLK around on the spaceship asking "why" to everything. I also especially love the moments of understanding between father and son, and mother and son, that help guide iLK to understanding that somethings are worth fighting for, even if that means standing alone.

Arc provided by NetGalley.

Humorous text and attractive images work together to tell an entertaining stoyr in Spacekid iLK. This is a book I was glad to have access to as a comic book reader, and one I would happily share with others.

This is the first book in what will be the Spacekid iLK series. It is the story of iLK, the young son of a world leader. iLK’s father decides to take over Earth and becomes its leader, but soon finds it tiresome and passes that responsibility on to his son. iLK takes over as ruler and is excited for fame and glory, but also doesn’t want to do the hard work of leading. He starts to develop friendships with the leaders of Earth’s continents, particularly the leader of South America. Marina, the leader of South America, bonds with iLK over their mutual affinity for plants. Things get complicated when iLK’s father decides Earrh is a dead planet not worth their their time, so they might as well blow it up. iLK finds that he has grown attached to humans and Earth and tries to come up with a plan to save them.

I liked this book and would recommend it to elementary age children. I think it was nice to see iLK’s transition from apathetic ruler to invested compassionate leader. I also liked the underlying message of responsibility. I would read further books in the series as well.

Special thanks to Netgalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest opinion.

I loved this and I am sure the boys will too. Although it is aimed at 8-12 year old I think good readers aged 6 -8 years would get on well with this too. It could also be read to this age group by the parents and enjoyed. I liked the diary style layout of the story and the illustrations were good. The book is funny but also teaches children about choices and different points of view. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed Spacekid iLK quite a bit! It has the angsty-but-clever preteen angle, coupled with wonderful illustrations and character development. Readers are going to enjoy the upbeat nature, iLK and his shenanigans, and the hilarious interactions iLK has with others. I'll definitely be recommending this book to lovers of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and would not at all be surprised if they like Spacekid iLK even more. Looking forward to the next one!