ZOONAUTS

My nine year old son is really into learning about animals as well as space exploration right now so ZOONAUTS: THE SECRET OF ANIMALVILLE is a nice pairing of these interests into a science fiction book that he has really enjoyed reading.  He is also too old for children's picture books yet not just ready yet for reading young adult novels so this middle grade story was a nice pick for him to read. Middle grade books are meant for third through sixth graders between the ages of 8 - 12 years old and I'm always on the lookout for ones that will entice him to bury his head into their pages.  ZOONAUTS combination of intelligent super-powered animals saving Earth from aliens did just the trick!

ZOONAUTS: THE SECRET OF ANIMALVILLE was written by Richard Mueller based upon a concept created by David Simons.  The story revolves around animals that have been sent up into outer space for experiments by NASA and mysteriously return to Earth with unexpected enhanced abilities and extraordinary powers.  A secret government program code named Lucky Bravo Lucky (also called Animalville) creates a team of animal superheroes who put their talents to use to help humanity.

The Zoonauts in the book are inspired by real life zoo animals, like Patty Cake the Gorilla who lived at New York City's Central Park and Bronx zoos, as well as ones actually utilized in space exploration missions by a variety of countries like Laika the Space Dog.  The Zoonauts team includes:

Kongo the Gorilla is the leader of the Zoonauts crew, this great ape has a genius IQ of 200 and the special ability to step outside of time.

Percy the Orangutan has learned to fly a helicopter and is the team's pilot.

Hsing-Hsing the Panda can read minds and see memories.

Cough Drop the Koala has the special power to create light or darkness.

Laika the Russian Dog is a Siberian husky named after the first dog sent into space by the Russians.  She has the ability to project protective force fields.

Miss Baker the Squirrel Monkey can disarm bombs and is handy with a wrench. Her character is based on a participant in the US Space Program who was called America’s “First Lady in Space.”

Mungo the Parrot  is a natural linguist who grasp any language he hears and speak it immediately.

Professor Mutzie the French Poodle an inventor of gadgets who has created a mechanized voice box  that enables the Zoonauts to speak English.

In this book the secret of Animalville has been discovered by aliens called Amadorians that have a dragon-like appearance.  They send an advance team to kidnap the Zoonauts so they can learn the secrets of these animals' powers to adapt for themselves to use in an invasion of Earth.  Can the Zoonauts protect themselves and stop this dastardly plot by scheming aliens?  You'll have to read ZOONAUTS: THE SECRET OF ANIMALVILLE to find out!

The paperback book's 198 page story is complimented by side bars sprinkled throughout it that provide a historic timeline of actual space travel milestones broken down by decades from 1950 through 2010 along with eleven sketches by Victor Dal Chele.  ZOONAUTS: THE SECRET OF ANIMALVILLE is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  For more information about the book, please visit zoonautskids.com.