Cosmic

By Frank Cottrell Boyce

It's one giant leap for all boy-kind in Frank Cottrell Boyce's out-of-this-world story: Cosmic.

Liam is too big for his boots. And his football strip. And his school blazer. But being super-sized height-wise has its advantages: he's the only eleven-year-old to ever ride the G-force-defying Cosmic rollercoaster – or to be offered the chance to drive a Porsche. Long-legged Liam makes a giant leap for boy-kind by competing with a group of adults for the chance to go into space. Is Liam the best boy for the job? Sometimes being big isn't all about being a grown-up.

This edition of Cosmic includes bonus material and discussion questions from Frank Cottrell Boyce and features fantastic cover artwork from Steven Lenton.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Jul 3, 2009
• ISBN: 9780330509329

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Frank Cottrell Boyce is the author of Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth, The Astounding Broccoli Boy, Cosmic, Framed, and Millions, the last of which was a New York Times bestseller and was made into a movie by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. His books have won or been nominated for numerous awards, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. Frank is also a screenwriter, having penned the scripts for a number of feature films as well as the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. He lives in Liverpool with his family.

Reviews for Cosmic

[christianr_899499 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was awkward to read, because at times I laughed so hard (quietly!) that I must have looked completely odd. The end didn't strike me quite as funny as the beginning, but there were many many hilarious parts most of the way through. Liam is a very tall 12-year-old with facial hair, so people assume he's much older than he is, and he happily plays along. He and his friend Florida especially like acting like a Dad and a daughter. So when he is invited to bring his daughter along to a special new amusement park for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, he convinces her to go along. Only the park turns out to be in China, and the ride is a ride in a space rocket, and the ride goes really wrong. Still, the kids act like kids. That's what I found the most funny -- how the author nailed the kids. I know a boy who has always been really tall for his age, and I could just imagine him doing the things Liam does to fool adults and getting a real charge out of it. I also enjoyed the author's previous book, Framed, and the movie based on his book Millions.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Liam is only 12, but matured early and looks older. Much older. Old enough to be a dad. So when he wins a contest for dads and kids to go to China to try out a new thrill ride, he enlists another 12-year-old to be his daughter, and off they go. The thrill ride turns out to be the first spaceship to take civilians into space - and Liam is the responsible adult going with 4 children.

[amandabock-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"I'm not exactly in the Lake District."

This is how we meet Liam, a twelve-year old boy who looks much older. So much so that he is continuously mistaken for an adult. So much so that he finds himself in outer space, with a bunch of kids, who think he's a dad. And now everything has gone wrong and it's up to him to get them all home safely again. It's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with a bit of Space Odyssey and World of Warcraft thrown in.

One of the things that I love about Boyce's books is how he includes very philosophical ideas but makes them very accessible. In this case, he explores the psychological implications of seeing the earth from space with the concept of "dadliness," what makes a person a parent. Boyce balances these potentially contrived, sappy topics with pitch-perfect humor. He is a master of setting up scenes and writing dialogue.

This is one of my favorite books of this year, and I shall give it to everyone I see.


--Response of first reading (May 2010)--
Love! I would be reading this on the train and be very sad when my stop came and I had to put it away. How could I have forgotten how much I love this author? I even want to go back and reread the others now.

I love how Liam figures out his course of action by comparing life to World of Warcraft levels (note to self: have a WoW player read this and comment).

I love how the story is a kind of new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Sort of. Kinda.

I did think that Liam managed to be very grown-up through the entire second half, and perhaps could have shown more of the boy who would probably be freaking out. But I didn't really care.

Florida cracks me up. I know so many kids just like that.

[dominirose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Filled with teen and father humor. In the vein of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[cay250 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Liam has always felt a bit like he's stuck between two worlds. This is primarily because he's a twelve-year-old kid who looks like he's about thirty. Sometimes it's not so bad, like when his new principal mistakes him for a teacher on the first day of school or when he convinces a car dealer to let him take a Porsche out on a test drive. But mostly it's just frustrating, being a kid trapped in an adult world. And so he decides to flip things around. Liam cons his way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space, a special flight for a group of kids and an adult chaperone, and he is going as the adult chaperone. It's not long before Liam, along with his friends, is stuck between two worlds again—only this time he's 239,000 miles from home.

[smithsj01_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I opened this up with much excitement, having enjoyed ‘Millions’ and ‘Framed’, however there was something missing from this that those two contained. Whilst it was a fun story I found myself looking towards the end as I was never completely engaged.It’s a lovely concept for a story with a very tall twelve year old Liam mistaken for an adult in every walk of life. It is this that gets him on board a space ship, pretending to be the dad of someone he attends a drama class with. There are some lovely moments in the book where Liam realises how much his Dad does for him and also how responsible adults have to be but on the whole I felt it wasn’t captivating enough. Cottrell Boyce does make good use of modern technology in this novel (computer games, satellite navigation systems etc) but it was missing something.

[rhinoa_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A tale of Liam, an 11 year old from Liverpool who looks much older than he is. He manages to get on a spaceship as the responsible adult with a group of children which gets into trouble. Hillarious!

[madcurrin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'That's the scary thing about children. They will vote to go into space with someone who is dangerously useless if it means they get a longer go on the PlayStation.'Totally cool! 'Cosmic' is essentially a ridiculous story with a ridiculous premise and a ridiculous plot, but the narrator's voice is so engaging it carries you through. Here's the plot: 12 year old boy is mistaken for a man and goes to space in a ship designed to be flown by children. Yes, it's over the top, a kind of space age 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', but the fantasy is grounded with loads of humour and a great big heart. Love this quote too:'Monopoly! Has ANYONE EVER played Monopoly to the end? Don't most people just sort of slip into a kind of boredom coma after a few goes and wake up six months later with a handful of warm hotels?'I'll be reading more of Frank Cottrell Boyce after this.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun, entertaining story about 12-year old Liam Digby, who happens to be 6 feet tall and already has a beard. People keep on mistaking Liam for an adult, which usually is a problem. But Liam uses his size to his advantage to win a contest as one of first fathers to go into space on a new amusement park ride. Although the story is completely implausible, everyone enjoyed it. Seeing fatherhood through a 12-year old's eyes made it especially funny with a bit of added insight. If you are a fan of WOW or other RPG - you'll love the humor.

[alyson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had really enjoyed Million and Framed, so I expected to like this. But really I loved it! Liam is a terrific character and I had no troubles getting caught up in this improbable tale. This should be on the top of our summer reading recommendations this year as well as in lots of best of lists for 2010!

[youthgpl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elly says, " This is a humorous story about Liam, a 12-year-old boy who is so tall he is often mistaken for an adult. This is great, if he wants to impersonate a teacher or test drive a Porsche. But impersonating an adult to fly to the moon brings far more responsibility than Liam is ready for. The book is light-hearted overall, fun to read, and is fairly well paced, but does have a couple of slow spots. There are poignant scenes as Liam discovers what being the adult means. There is one scene in which Liam is offered alcohol and does over-indulge. It does appear that, other than Liam's father, the adults in this story are self-absorbed and foolish.

[shelf3employed · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An improbable premise powers this first-person, space-age novel. Twelve-year-old Liam Digby is tall for his age - so tall, in fact, that he's often mistaken for an adult - great fun at the amusement park or car dealership, but a very different story when he finds himself in China's Gobi desert, playing "dad" to his friend, Florida, as they train for a secret mission to outer space. He does his best to appear "dadly," even referring to a copy of "Talk to Your Teen," hijacked from his own dad, who believes Liam and Florida to be attending a multi-day Gifted and Talented symposium for school!The laughs are plentiful in this cosmic romp, but Liam and Florida also manage to learn a few things about space, human nature, themselves, and of course, "dadliness.”"One person has just left the crowd and is heading over to me. It's Dad. He's walking toward me like there's some special gravity pulling him toward me. And maybe there is. Maybe everyone's got their own special gravity that lets you go far away, really far away sometimes, but which always brings you back in the end. Because here's the thing. Gravity is variable. Sometimes you float like a feather. Sometimes you're too heavy to move. Sometimes one boy can weigh more than the whole universe. The universe goes on forever, but that doesn't make you small. Everyone is massive. Everyone is King Kong.”Well said.

[prkcs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Twelve year old Liam looks like he's thirty. Sometimes it's not bad; for example on the first day of school the principal mistakes Liam for a teacher or when he convinces a car dealer to let him test drive a Porsche. So feeling like he's stuck between two worlds, Liam cons his way into being the adult chaperone on the first space ship to take civilians into space. But when the ship is stuck 230,000 miles from home, being mistaken for an adult is not good.

[mirandalg14 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars. A fun story. Just because you look older doesn't mean you should be treated that way.

[brookec4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book a great laugh out loud I recommened this to everyone

[yellowoasis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My initial reaction to this book is that it is too lightweight to be considered for the Carnegie Medal. The tone is very jokey, and the plot is too far-fetched to be believable. BUT – I completely changed my mind and the book totally won me over. Yes, the plot is unbelievable but the writing is just so convincing you find yourself going along with it. The ‘deeper messages’ about families and fatherhood in particular are woven in so subtly that you don’t feel preached to (by the way, FCB does have a way of portraying fathers very positively). The episode where Liam goes outside the space ship is truly suspenseful. In some ways this book reminded me of Charlie and the chocolate factory – some awful kids and one nice one – but where Dahl despatches the bad kids in satisfying but nasty ways, FCB allows us to see why these kids have become this way, and rehabilitates them. A wonderful book. By the end I wanted to watch Apollo 13 again and read more about the early days of the space race.

[jugglingpaynes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cosmic is a story about a boy, Liam Digby, who is so tall for his 12 years he is constantly mistaken for an adult. A series of misadventures leads him to end up on a secret rocket mission that has gone wrong. Parts of the story are reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is a sweet children's novel with wonderful funny moments which ends up being a beautiful tribute to dads everywhere.

[laneliterati · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a really fun book! I enjoyed it thoroughly, and found it to be quite engaging. The book is very Charlie and the Chocolate Facotry-esque, only with space, instead of candy, and with fathers instead of children, being put under close scrutiny. In no way did the book feel like a knock-off, but it very much is reminiscent of C and C.F.

[shanon2sval5976 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is about a boy named Liam Digby who grows up too fast for his age. He passes as an adult. Liam takes advantage of this and pretends to be an adult. He doesnt just pretend to be any adult, he acts like a dad. His friend Florida helps him. Florida acts like his daughter and they both go on a trip Liam won on Drax to CHINA! They go on a Cosmic rocket to outerspace. At the end Liam crashed onto Earth and found his way home.

[rosa.mill · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So have you ever felt like a book was trying too hard? That's how I felt about this book, like it was just trying waaay too hard. It was too over the top, required me to suspend belief too much and too often and it tried too hard to be funny. I felt like if some of it had been toned down, I might have lived with it but there were just too many too's.

Liam is a 12 year old boy that already looks like an adult, in fact he looks old enough to be mistaken for a father. He and his friend Florida, frequently run around pretending to be father and daughter. They don't get into too much trouble with it until Liam wins a contest, that results in him, Florida and three other kids going to the moon. Liam's examination of what a dad is and the analysis of his and the other kids actions was actually really interesting, but so much of this was just so over the top that it was disappointing. I felt like more could have been done with less.

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very funny and heartwarming.