posted on 04 Nov 2023

Space Pirate Bears by Alastair Chisholm, illustrated by Jez Tuya

Family story time is the place where imagination can take flight – stories start in one place and, if everyone chips in, they can end up in the most unexpected spaces.

When Jamie and Abby are bored one day, they pester their dad for a story – a Space Pirate Bears story. Snuggled up together off they go into the ‘darkest depths of space’ to meet Princess Leona’s Star Defenders, Prince Pilot, Captain Neigh, the Sniffles and the Cosmic Witch Bogwart. There’s even ‘a terrible wave…of alien broccoli’.

But worse even than broccoli is the dreaded Doktor Dull and his evil BORON BEAM. How can Princess Leona save the universe from the dreaded Doktor? Jamie and Abby have the solution – call for the Space Pirate Bears!

But that’s where the children’s imaginations go off down very different paths. Abby wants the Bears to also be unicorn doctors but, of course, Jamie doesn’t agree. He poo-poos the idea of unicorns in space and demands that Bears are really secret agents. No, no, says Abbie, they are Ninjas.

Try as he may, dad just can’t keep the children focussed on the dreadful deeds of Doktor Dull – the unicorn/secret agent argument keeps popping up. But dad has an idea – he becomes Doktor Dull and announces that because the children can’t agree about their heroes, he wins!

That does the trick - and so the Space Pirate Bears become “Space Pirate Secret Agent Unicorn Doctor Flying Ninja Bears”. And naturally they save the world:

“And the world goes back to being fun, and the Space Pirate Bears save the day!”

Of course, that’s the whole point: stories can go anywhere you want them to go and there are no rules and no limits. The stories we make together become ours forever:

“Dad smiled. ‘It’s your story now’, he said. ‘And it can be whatever you want.’”

Alastair Graham has captured perfectly the bond made by storytelling and the way we should just set stories free to go anywhere they want to go. This is a big generous, colourful book, lavishly illustrated by the New Zealand illustrator, Jez Tuya.

Available now from Walker Books, you should be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order you a copy if they don’t have one on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

October 2023