Only the first few pages of my ARC were colorized, but Vega and her parents all have brown skin while others in the story are cued as White.Īnything you didn’t like about it? I didn’t find the art or the plot particularly compelling. The normalization of the two-dad family was a nice touch. The issues of keeping old friends and finding new ones are popular with this age group and the melding of that with a science fiction plot was promising. I liked that the tweens in the story all share an interest in science and use their knowledge to navigate their weird situation and solve problems. Things get pretty crazy when it turns out the campers have been kidnapped by an alien named George who just wants to have some buddies they’re actually on board a spaceship! Gardner’s illustrations are straightforward and the story is easy to follow. The counselors and her surroundings seem a bit off, although she does become friends with her tentmate Gemma (geology nut) and an oddball computer nerd named Qwerty. But the dads send her away for two weeks to Camp Very Best Friend in a well-intentioned effort to get her to come out of her shell. The two girls have bonded over their love of astronomy and science and until now, introverted Vega has felt OK with having one good friend. What did you like about the book? A new job sends Vega and her two dads to Seattle but that means leaving her BFF Halley behind.

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3 Long Distance – written and illustrated by Whitney Gardner, Simon & Schuster, 9781534455665, 2021

Long Distance by Whitney Gardner