Zita the Spacegirl (Zita the Spacegirl, #1)

Zita the Spacegirl (Zita the Spacegirl, #1)

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3.92 of 5 stars 3.92  ·  rating details  ·  2,008 ratings  ·  341 reviews
Zita’s life took a cosmic left turn in the blink of an eye.



When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita leaps to the rescue and finds herself a stranger on a strange planet. Humanoid chickens and neurotic robots are shocking enough as new experiences go, but Zita is even more surprised to find herself taking on the role of intergalactic hero. Before lon...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published February 1st 2011 by First Second
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Angela
May 07, 2013 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2013
When her friend Joseph is pulled into an alien world, Zita follows in order to try to save him. She arrives just in time to see him loaded onto a spaceship by strange robot-like aliens and taken away. Not long after her only way home is destroyed, she learns that an asteroid will be destroying the planet it three days. Even if she can rescue Joseph, she has to deal with this disaster, as well. Zita begins to navigate this strange planet, meeting several new friends along the way. Some are faithf...more
Robin J.
I am currently reading the book reading the book Zita the Space Girl By: Ben Hatke. The main character in this book is Zita, and that’s who I am going to do my report on. Zita is this girl who wear’s sort of like a super hero cape that is green, Grayish boots, gloves, and a "Z" on her shirt. She also wears a white long sleeve dress, and white leggings. Zita loves exploring stuff, In this book she is very adventurous, and caring, nice and sweet. Once her and her friend were out and they found thi...more
S.N.Arly Arly
This is a charming graphic novel, and was much enjoyed (read: snarfed right up) by my four and seven year old children.

This book has quite a few strengths. It has a strong female protagonist (not meaning the physical sense), which we have far too few of for my taste. To have a girl who is heroic in space, on an adventure, is just my cup of tea. The protagonist takes responsibility for her actions, even when she's not proud of them, and makes tough choices because they are the right thing to do....more
Christopher
This was a gift for May's Easter basket and a recommendation for the good folks at Million Year Picnic (http://www.themillionyearpicnic.com/). May devoured it and Bone in an afternoon.

I was happy to have a spunky girl protagonist without it being central that she was a spunky girl!

Probably my favorite moment is after seeing her friend kidnapped by an alien, she runs and hides in the woods to cry; then she thinks for minute, realizes she is the only responsible person here (responsible in the se...more
Seth Hahne
Zita the Spacegirl

Recently, it's come to my attention that maybe I'm not really a fan of science fiction. I may not even be a fan of adventure. I've found that the idea of a science fiction world isn't enough to spark my interest. A world populated by robots? A dystopian future of genetic manipulation? Star-spanning empires and the rebels that seek their liberation from those empires? I always have a sense of been there and done that. The ideas just don't excite me like they once may have—I presume that decades a...more
Stacey
Dec 19, 2012 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Stacey by: boing boing
One ordinary day, an adventurous girl named Zita is running home from school with her friend, Joseph ---actually he is chasing her because she stole his notebook.
She runs through a field, and then stops suddenly at a large crater in the ground—with a meteorite inside!
Joseph says they should report this to the Science squad, but Zita crawls bravely into the crater.
Inside the meteorite, she finds an object with a red button. She presses the button!
Joseph is so scared but nothing happens . . . righ...more
Joella www.cinjoella.com
Zita and her friend Joseph discover a strange object with a button while walking. Zita pushes the button and Joseph is taken by some strange creature into another world/dimension. Zita decides to push the button a second time to get to the other world so she can save Joseph. As Zita goes around this new world she discovers a few things. 1. The world is about to be destroyed by a giant meteor. 2. Some strange creatures are nice, some are not. 3. Joseph is going to be sacrificed in hopes of stoppi...more
Brandi
Zita The Spacegirl has the two things that make graphic novels great: outstanding artwork and a compelling storyline. Zita is a girl from Earth who ends up travelling through the galaxies to save her friend, Joseph. Most of her journey is spent on a planet populated by a unique variety of extraterrestrial life. While on her quest, Zita makes new friends, experiences a great betrayal, and saves an entire planet.
The best word to describe Zita is bold. This boldness not only saves Joseph, but get...more
Megan
Oct 03, 2012 Megan added it

Summary: This book was about a girl who was playing outside with her friend, Joseph, when all the sudden a futuristic device came crashing to earth. Zita pushed the “big red button” and it sucked Joseph into another dimension, so Zita obviously had to go after him. They landed in a world that was about to be destroyed and was full of strange creatures, some of which thought Joseph was going to save their world. Zita joined forces with Piper, Mouse, One and Randy to save Joseph from the Scriptori...more
Lori Redman
Zita and Joseph are young friends who stumble upon a strange device next to an asteroid that has crashed to Earth. When Zita touches it, the device transports Joseph away- and Zita follows him to a strange planet with aliens and robots galore. Zita must save Joseph, who is taken away by evil men, with the help of her new friends, Piper, Strong-Strong, and Mouse. The adventure is dangerous but that doesn't stop ZIta.

I absolutely adored this book. I can see from other goodreads reviews that some c...more
Karen
To me this reads like an exceptionally promising draft from an artist who has not yet hit his stride. Don't misunderstand: it is a fun, creative, absorbing story; well-balanced, with excellent pacing and movement. I read it aloud to my 8yo daughter, and neither of us wanted to interrupt the story for dinner or 'real life'.
However, all the things the author does right makes me wish he had done it even better. The characters, for example, are quite flat, and the movement from scene to scene is ch...more
Somer
So this was my very first graphic novel. If you told me a year ago that I would read a graphic novel on my own accord I would have thought you were nuts! Just goes to show how your interests can change. I had been thinking about trying out a graphic novel after reading some good reviews around the blogosphere. I was browsing Amazon, and thought this looked like a good one to start with, and I really think it was.

The story is simple, but that’s what I really liked about this book. The simplicity...more
Rochetta G
I picked up this book in desperation not find a science fiction book. To my surprise it was a hard covered comic book. Most of the story is told through story boards. The artist uses shading all types of lines to outline his characters, slight imperfections and emphasize emotions. The lines look as if they were sketched in after the picture was drawn. He uses very warm and dark solid colors. This is recommended for intermediate readers because of it length and content.
A mysterious device hidden...more
Eleanor
I'm on the Great Stone Face Committee in New Hampshire, and this book is on our current possible nominee list (shh, don't tell). We had a very heated argument as to how to judge the writing in a graphic novel, because it obviously has less text than a full length novel. I fully believe that graphic novels can tell just as powerful of a story as any other form of novel, and I tried to argue that with someone who clearly doesn't care for graphic novels, so it was basically like me talking to a ver...more
nicole j. wroblewski
The graphic novel shelf in the children's section of your library or local bookstore isn't big. It's growing all the time, sure, but when a kid can flip through and finish a single book in an hour, the pickings become all the slimmer. So while the best I can say for Zita the Spacegirl is that it's... adequate... it's also the type of book a lot of kids are absolutely aching for. And so that counts for something.

I don't doubt that many kids will enjoy Zita just fine. It has adventure, a cast of k...more
Amy
Zita and her friend Joseph are playing one day when Zita accidentally opens a portal to outer space and Joseph gets sucked in. Zita bravely jumps in after him, and finds herself in another world that is populated by all kinds of alien-like creatures. Everyone is pretty intimidating and not very helpful when it comes to finding Joseph, but Zita is able to assemble a rag-tag team of friends who are willing to help her locate her friend. Complicating matters is the fact that this other world is goi...more
Marika
One day while Zita and her friend Joseph are walking, they come across a small crater. Inside is a strange device, and Zita, being an adventurous button-pusher, hits it. A vortex opens and something reaches out to grab Joseph. Luckily, Zita is a good friend, so she hits the button again and disappears into the vortex after Joseph, only to land in an alien world. What follows are the adventures of Zita as she tries to find Joseph and return to Earth- before an asteroid destroys the planet she’s o...more
Andrew Shuping
Zita has appeared in webcomics and in a couple of the early Flight novels, but this is her first full length feature all to herself and she takes her readers on a fantastic ride.

We meet Zita and in the beginning she's just an ordinary, if somewhat spontaneous, young girl horsing around with a friend...when they find a crashed asteroid that contains a device with a giant red button. Doing what any kid would do, Zita presses the button and her friend is suddenly pulled through the vortex that has...more
Leslie
"Ben Hatke’s Zita the Spacegirl is cute. The series promises to be a fun diversion, caught somewhere between the serious complex adventure in Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series (Graphix/Scholastic) and the goofball antics of The Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krozocska. And while Raina Telgemeier and Hope Larson are publishing great comics for girls, Zita will give girl comic readers some adventure/sci fi stories worth getting excited about; although, this is not to say boys won’t enjoy Zita.
"The ar...more
Chris
A small, metal box with a big, red button appears in a field, in the middle of a crater, apparently having crashed into the Earth as a meteoroid. Zita and Joseph stumble upon it.

"I thought that kind of thing always burned up in the atmosphere."

"The dinosaurs thought so too."


Being adventurous and a bit mischievous, Zita holds the cautious Joseph down and presses the button to scare him. At first nothing happens, then a portal opens in the air and some thing with a helmet and tentacles pops out, g...more
Hilary
While tormenting her friend, Joseph, Zita stumbles across a crater in the middle of a field that definitely wasn't there the day before. Upon further investigation they find a device with a giant red button wedged inside of the asteroid. Zita takes the opportunity to scare the daylights out of Joseph by pushing the red button which she thinks will do nothing. To her surprise, a giant rip in the space time continuum opens up and Joseph disappears into it. Panicking, Zita presses the button again...more
Sarah BT
I read a review of Zita the Spacegirl on Betsy Bird's blog and knew I had to check it out. Zita is a great new addition to middle grade graphic novels and I can't wait to start booktalking it. Zita reminds me a bit of The Wizard of Oz, Gregor the Overlander, and Astro Boy all rolled into one and set in space. Zita's adventures are exciting and fun and she meets a great cast of unique characters along the way.

One thing I love about graphic novels is the way the artist can connect the reader to t...more
Cindy Hudson
When Zita finds a gadget in what appears to be a crashed meteorite site, she can’t resist pushing the button. When she does, a creature with octopus-like limbs reaches through a tear in the sky and grabs her friend Joseph. Zita runs away, but soon she realizes that she must follow Joseph and try to bring him back.

So she pushes the button again and steps into a fantastical world of strange creatures, some friendly, some not. Zita discovers that this world is about to be destroyed by an asteroid,...more
Mary
Zita the Spacegirl is a charming graphic novel about a young girl named Zita whose friend, Joseph, is kidnapped by aliens while they are exploring together. Zita follows Joseph across the vast reaches of space, meeting strange new beings and learning all about the universe in an effort to save her friend. Children should enjoy the beautiful and imaginative illustrations that accompany this funny yet adventurous tale.

This graphic novel is intended for children from grades 2-6.

This book is a good...more
Karen
Alice in Wonderland goes to outerspace in this graphic novel featuring the plucky earthgirl Zita. She finds a piece of space junk fallen to earth and against her best friend's good sense, she pushes a button and the adventure begins.

After finding herself on another planet and separated from her earth friend, she embarks on a quest to discern friend from foe in the tumulteous world of a post-apocalyptic oddities. This new world is populated by a variety of creatures including a giant-sized mouse...more
Rebecca
Zita is such a fun character and the illustrations in the book really bring her to life! This is a graphic novel that tells a great story about friendship and bravery. The characters are endearing, silly, creative and some are just a little bit scary; but Zita makes new friends and finds help in a foreign land. I encourage all readers to delve into this genre and discover what gems can be found in the graphic novel category. Although the main character is a girl, her friend is a boy and the cre...more
Finn
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be on an alien planet? In Zita the Spacegirl, a graphic novel by Ben Hatke, an girl named Zita discovers a mysterious object that teleports her and her friend Joseph to a planet millions of light-years away, where Joseph is kidnapped. There she discovers strange aliens, an eccentric inventor and some new friends as she treks across the landscape to rescue her friend.

This is a very funny book and it has some very clever twists in it. However, the best p...more
Erin
This graphic novel is all about the adventures of a young girl named Zita. Zita finds herself on another planet, after she bravely attempts to save her friend. Her young friend was taken by a group of aliens, and her bravery is what lead to her becoming stuck on this strange planet. She meets many interesting space creatures, and many of which surprise her. Eventually, however, she becomes accustomed to the strange beings and she takes on the role of a hero.

This story is well-written, and would...more
Betsy
I run a bookgroup for kids between the ages of 9-13. Like a number of American children in the 21st century, these kids have an overwhelming palate for good graphic novels. I can hand them Robot Dreams or Ghostopolis or Rapunzel's Revenge, it doesn't matter. Whatever the title, they devour these books in less than an hour and come hounding me for more. The market simply doesn't exist to satiate their perpetual GN hunger. In fact, far fewer really worthwhile comics for kids come out than you migh...more
Teresa Scherping
A mysterious device blasts Zita and her friend Joseph to a faraway planet inhabited by many different alien species. When Joseph is captured and taken away by a hostile alien, Zita teams up with various robots and other strange creatures to get him back.

This is a sweet story, but I couldn't get that worked up about it. There wasn't much to the story besides the mission to rescue Joseph. It also didn't seem like Zita was too torn up about being stuck so far from home. This is definitely a book fo...more
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Zita the Spacegirl (Hardcover)
Zita the Spacegirl, Book One: Far from Home (Hardcover)
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Ben Hatke is the author and illustrator of the Zita the spacegirl series, and other books...
More about Ben Hatke...
Legends of Zita the Spacegirl (Zita the Spacegirl, #2) Hatke Family Adventures Vol. 1: Tales from the Bohemian Highway Hatke Family Adventures Vol. 2: Waiting for Toast Flight, Vol. 3 Flight Explorer, Volume 1

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