The Cosmic Atlas of Alfie Fleet

By Author / Illustrator

Martin Howard, illus Chris Mould

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

Publisher

Oxford University Press

ISBN

9780192767509

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

07-03-2019

Synopsis

Bored of the same old routine? Longing for a bit of adventure in your life? Love living life on the edge? Then join Alfie Fleet and discover a whole universe of wonders (and things that are not so wonderful too, but we won't go into that now).

From giant sand lobsters on planet Maureen and the Twang Bears of Mumsy, to the eerie (yet oddly quite boring) brains in jars on Brains-in-Jars World - there is something for everyone. And if danger's your thing, you won't want to miss Outlandish, with its gold-hoarding dragon, take-your-life-in-your-hands cuisine, and welcoming locals who'll fire lightning bolts at you. Thrills and adventure await, just hop on board the slightly old and rusty moped of infinity!

More than funny fiction - this story does for travel guides and maps what Wimpy Kid did for diaries and Tom Gates did for doodle books. With amazing illustrations by Chris Mould throughout, this book is a visual feast and will appeal to readers everywhere.

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Reviews

Alfie lives with his mother who works every waking hour in a fish factory supporting the two of them and paying off the debts left by Alfie's father. Life is difficult; the flat is small and sparsely furnished, clothes are threadbare and food is restricted to offcuts of fish brought home from the factory. Alfie and his mum, however, make the best of things and Alfie finds comfort in his books on adventure and derring-do. So, a true and sadly all-too-common scenario to begin with.

Then Alfie speculates on the stock market with his birthday money in order to be able to afford a special present for his Mum's birthday and achieves the amazing sum of one hundred pounds. So, now not such a common scenario. Then he answers an advert for a day's work 'moving things about' which will make up the shortfall for that special present and encounters Professor Bowell-Mouvement and the Unusual Cartography Club.

At this point, we depart with Alfie into the realms of the absolutely bonkers with its universe-travelling stone circles, elves, dragons, knights on a quest and the search for a way home.

The Cosmic Atlas of Alfie Fleet is an exciting, action-packed, imaginative rip-roaring ride of a book, full of Chris Mould's wonderful illustrations and maps of weird places. The other universes and their very strange inhabitants are described in great comic detail as the Professor and Alfie use the Cosmic Atlas to navigate their way to a stone circle that will allow them to get home.

The character of Alfie will appeal to readers - he is kind and considerate, determined and imaginative, brave and clever. It is Alfie's plan, in the face of a fire breathing dragon, that saves everybody from certain doom, ensures the survival of the Unusual Cartography Club, keeps the promises he has made to various creatures along the way and buys Mum that super-duper foot spa.

Independent and confident young readers will just love the mayhem, adventure, humour and imagination of this book.

336 pages / Reviewed by June Hughes, school librarian"