Zelda's Big Adventure, written by Marie Alafaci, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Reilly J.
Summary: This book is about one chicken’s struggle to success story as she attempts to build a rocket and go to space. Zelda awakens one day with the thought of going to space, so she gets to work right away. Though she struggles to do it on her own so she attempts to enlist the help of her friends, but not all goes to plan. Her friends don’t have the time to help her out, so in the end she has to make her rocket all on her own. She’s so proud of what she can create, and that she is able to make it to space all on her own. As she travels through the cosmos, she realizes that she is lonely up there all on her own, so she comes home. Zelda did in fact, become the first chicken in space. News of the spaceship was the most exciting thing that had happened in that area, so it was the talk of the yard. Zelda’s friends tried to take credit for the work they didn’t do, but were asked to help with. However, Zelda was a forgiving chicken and decided it was more important to have friends with her on the next trip instead of holding a grudge against her friends.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book handles some difficult topics, although still manages to portray it in a bright and positive manner. While speaking on terms of struggling through loneliness, it also speaks of the well known term of “work hard, play hard”. Zelda built an entire rocketship on her own and managed to have an amazing time while doing it. She was proud of herself, and that's a topic that’s quite important for early readers to do in their younger years. People should be proud of the work they’ve done and this book portrays it very well. Secondly, the art of the book is quite vivid, with bright and flowing colors, and multiple different styles to really give it that child-like innocence look. This book teaches the significance of perseverance, that even when times are hard and you think about giving up, there's always an emotional payoff in the end. This book is a fantastic choice for early readers and advanced readers alike. It would be a good fit for a school library looking to by STEM books. The story covers the scientific method. It would also be a good choice for young science fiction fans. Space travel is always fun.