KS1 / KS2 English: Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Ice creams! Get your ice creams!It's a lovely sunny day!I don't think I'm fooling anyone.Have you ever told a little lie?How about a big one?Well, I bet it's not as big asthe whopper that starts off this brilliant book, Cosmic.

Liam, he's the boy who's toldthe whopper,leaves this phone message for hismum and dad."Mum, Dad, if you're listening,"you know I said I was going tothe South Lakeland Outdoor Activity Centre with the school?"To be completely honest, I'm notexactly in the Lake District."To be completely honest,I'm more sort of… in space."I'm on this rocket,the Infinite Possibility."I'm about 200,000 milesabove the surface of the Earth."

Yep, you heard right, Liam issupposed to be on a school trip.Instead, he's on a rocket.A rocket with a kind ofintergalactic ice cream van attached to it.In space! Imagine howhe must be feeling. BEEPING

RUMBLING

What?! Argh! Argh!Argh! Wargh! I guess,a little bit like this! Argh! Argh!!Whoa! Whoa!

Liam only gets to go on the rocketcos he's so tall he tells everyone he's a grown-up.I know, another lie!But can you blame him?I mean, look at that!

Liam says it better than me."When you're in it, space looks likethe biggest fireworks display ever,"except it's on pause. It looks likefreeze-frame fireworks."Even if you're completely doomed,you've got to be impressed."

Is Liam doomed? He's on a rocketbeing sucked into the moon's orbitand almost certainly going to end upcircling in space for ever.I'd say that's pretty high on thedoom-ometer.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, Liam's notalone up there.The first five kids ever to go intospace are on the rocket with him.Of course, really there are six,but Liam's pretending to be an adult, remember?

One of the other kids, Florida,she's got her own reasons for being on board.She's thinks that going into spacewill make her a world famous celebrity.

A word of warning - if you read thisbook you will want to go into space.But you'll find out there'sa lot of training involved.Liam and the others have to find outwhat it's like to be weightless, so they all go on the Vomit Comet!Want to know why it's called that?I'll leave it to your imagination.

The book's not about boggly-eyedaliens and UFOs flying all over the place, there's real facts in it.There's even a real astronaut,Mr Alan Bean, he was the fourth man to walk on the moon.That's right, Mr Bean has walked onthe moon!

Once the rocket mission's gonewrong, it's just the five kids,a hi-tech ice cream van,that's another problem all together,and everyone hoping that Liam canget them home.After all,they think he's a grown-up,and he is having to grow up, fast!But lost in the universe, Liam can'thelp thinking of his dad.

"When you're a kid you thinkyour dad can do anything. It's different now."If you ask me now if I think Dad'sgoing to pop up at the controls of this rocket,"200,000 miles above the surface ofthe Earth, and fly us back to Bootle, I'd say… probably not."I suppose that means I'm nota kid any more."

I really hate it when you're aboutto start a book and then someone tells you the ending.Like if I was to tell you thatat the end of this book, Liam ends up living on Mars.Ha-ha! Only joking.

It's Venus! No, no, it isn't.It is!No, no, no, it's not. Or is it?I think that when you read a book,it becomes part of you, it's locked away in your brainand then years later, bits of itcan pop into your head when you least expect it.

If I were some sort of stuffyprofessor, I'd probably say, "We are the books we read!"But I'm not, so I won't.

EERIE NOISE

HE WHIMPERS

Phew!Of course, the only way to find outif Liam makes it homeis to read the book. I think you'lllike it. And that's not a lie.

Right, let's try this again.

CHIMES PLAY

On second thoughts,I'll just get a burger.I'm out here in some very spookywoods with a fantastic book.