Sophie Glendale™ and the Cracking Moon

Nell Whitcombe's note: A sentence either earns its breath or it doesn't, and in the exchanges between Sophie and Cookie, this book earns quite a few. Cookie — a snorting, anxious pug convinced she has "Space Belly" and that falling out of the sky might be contagious — is the standout creation here. Her deadpan non-sequiturs ("I farked?" / "Farted." / "I knew something was wrong with me") land with the timing of a seasoned comic writer, and Warn resists the urge to over-explain the joke, which is the harder discipline. The running bit with Ed's squeaking spacesuit boots is used sparingly enough to stay funny rather than curdle into shtick.

Where the book does real work beyond gags is the family material bracketing the adventure: the unspoken exchange between Nora and Henry over Sophie's head, the photograph with no hospital bracelet, Drew's crumpled coupon ("Some restrictions apply. Not valid on weekends, holidays, school days, or days ending in Y"). These beats trust a young reader to sit with an unanswered question — Sophie's folded-back questions about her adoption are handled with more restraint than most chapter books attempt, letting silence do some of the storytelling instead of exposition.

The Novaluma world-building is generous without being cluttered: sherbet-colored ground, flowers with teeth that "only bite when they're hungry," a Moon Watchers' observatory built in circles so no one turns away from the sky. It's vivid, kid-legible, and earns its wonder rather than just listing colors. The moon-crash sequence has genuine tension — the countdown, the one blinking dot that moves "too slowly" — real stakes handled at exactly the right emotional pitch for the age group.