Astronaut Academy

Jan 01, 2012 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It can be tough being a student in outer space, even if you have really cool hair, because someone might hit it with a sonic fireball and burn it all off. Even if you’re the richest and most pretty girl at Astronaut Academy, your arch rival might get to the cute new boy in school before you have a chance to introduce yourself. And even if you’re the cute new boy in school you might get stuck with a stuck up roommate, and no one will care that you were part of a Meta-Team that can transform into...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Cemeread added it

Shelves: juvenile-graphic-novel

Zero Gravity is the first book in a new series of graphic novels that take place in space. This one is older than our other space related graphic novels. The story focuses on the students, who seem to all have crushes on other students, and teachers of the school. The dialog in the book was a bit awkward. It reads almost like it was translated from Japanese, the way people for whom English is a second language might translate literally or phrase words differently. I tried to think of it as being...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Scruffy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hakata Soy is a young former space hero just starting out at the space based Astronaut Academy. Starting with this simple premise we are introduced to a large cast of characters and many inter-weaving plot lines. The book is made up of lots of short stories told from alternating perspectives all of which are connected to tell a larger story. Because of the structure of the book I found it best to be read in short bursts rather than straight through.

Astronaut Academy is very funny. I often find c...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Jimmy added it

Western Humanities Book review

Paragraph One: plot summary

My book takes place in the future where kids will go to school in space and learn about future things such as wearing cute hats, zero gravity gymnastics, and also run-on sentences. The main character in this book is Hakata Soy, a new student to Astronaut Academy, was a I guess you could say “space ranger” fighting these bird like people that are constantly terrorizing someone. As the plot develops new people join in the story and sort of...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Patrice Sartor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: friendship, graphic-novel, humor, sci-fi, school, love-sex-romance, tween

A group of students are in space at the Astronaut Academy, learning about science, math, how to properly float in space and (for at least one student) how to throw a fireball that could save your life. Each short chapter focuses on one character's perspective, and through the course of the book we become familiar with many residents at Astronaut Academy. The main one is Hakata Soy, who truly does sport a fantastic hair-do, which leads some of the girls to swoon. Some flashbacks from Hakata's pre...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Wandering Librarians rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, great-graphic-novels-for-girls, graphic-novel, middle-grade, good-for-anyone, friendship, fiction, series, science-fiction, adventure, action

Welcome to Astronaut Academy, a boarding where students learn important skills such as anti-gravity gymnastics, fire throwing, advanced heart studies and Spanish. It's also where Hakata Soy, former space hero, has been sent by his parents. Unfortunately, his enemies won't leave him alone! With the help of his new friend Miyumi San, he'll try to make it through his first semester.

This was pretty silly. It was also very tongue and cheek in a way I enjoyed but I think most middle school students,...more Welcome to Astronaut Academy, a boarding where students learn important skills such as anti-gravity gymnastics, fire throwing, advanced heart studies and Spanish. It's also where Hakata Soy, former space hero, has been sent by his parents. Unfortunately, his enemies won't leave him alone! With the help of his new friend Miyumi San, he'll try to make it through his first semester.

This was pretty silly. It was also very tongue and cheek in a way I enjoyed but I think most middle school students, which is who it's written for, wouldn't really understand. I don't think that would prevent middle school students from enjoying this silly space adventure though.

The story is told by many different characters, from Hakata Soy and Miyumi San, who were the main characters, to Hakata's roommate, who on the outside seems to only care about fireball, but actually has a sensitive side, to Maribelle Mellonbelly, the richest and meanest girl at Astronaut Academy and Miyumi's nemeses, to Cybert, the Hakata look-alike robot that has been sent to Astronaut Academy to eliminate Hakata Soy. And many, many others.

The main plot is that Hakata is sad and mopey and missing his friends, and he can't contact anyone and no one contacts him! Little does he know that the bad guys, knows as Gotcha Birds, he previously defeated on Hoppiton (home of bunnies, that look like old-time Disney characters), are jamming his signal! One of his old fellow heroes, missing Hakata and unable to contact him, makes a robot that looks just like Hakata to keep him company. But then the Gotcha Birds steal it and reprogram it to sneak into Astronaut Academy and kill Hakata!

Meanwhile, Miyumi , who has enough problems of her own fending off Maribelle Mellonbelly, befriends Hakata and ultimately ends up saving his life with her incredible fireball power! In between there is much ridiculousness, like dinosaur riding and panda bears who teach Spanish but are really secret agents.

At the end, since Hakata hasn't been able to contact his family, Miyumi invites him over to her place for the semester break where her grandfather will see if he can fix Hakata's communication device.

So cute, silly and fun to read. It's drawn in a decidedly anime style. Kind of anime-lite.(less)

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Sep 18, 2011 Arianna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Welcome to Astronaut Academy, a boarding where students learn important skills such as anti-gravity gymnastics, fire throwing, advanced heart studies and Spanish. It's also where Hakata Soy, former space hero, has been sent by his parents. Unfortunately, his enemies won't leave him alone! With the help of his new friend Miyumi San, he'll try to make it through his first semester.

This was pretty silly. It was also very tongue and cheek in a way I enjoyed but I think most middle school students,...more Welcome to Astronaut Academy, a boarding where students learn important skills such as anti-gravity gymnastics, fire throwing, advanced heart studies and Spanish. It's also where Hakata Soy, former space hero, has been sent by his parents. Unfortunately, his enemies won't leave him alone! With the help of his new friend Miyumi San, he'll try to make it through his first semester.

This was pretty silly. It was also very tongue and cheek in a way I enjoyed but I think most middle school students, which is who it's written for, wouldn't really understand. I don't think that would prevent middle school students from enjoying this silly space adventure though.

The story is told by many different characters, from Hakata Soy and Miyumi San, who were the main characters, to Hakata's roommate, who on the outside seems to only care about fireball, but actually has a sensitive side, to Maribelle Mellonbelly, the richest and meanest girl at Astronaut Academy and Miyumi's nemeses, to Cybert, the Hakata look-alike robot that has been sent to Astronaut Academy to eliminate Hakata Soy. And many, many others.

The main plot is that Hakata is sad and mopey and missing his friends, and he can't contact anyone and no one contacts him! Little does he know that the bad guys, knows as Gotcha Birds, he previously defeated on Hoppiton (home of bunnies, that look like old-time Disney characters), are jamming his signal! One of his old fellow heroes, missing Hakata and unable to contact him, makes a robot that looks just like Hakata to keep him company. But then the Gotcha Birds steal it and reprogram it to sneak into Astronaut Academy and kill Hakata!

Meanwhile, Miyumi , who has enough problems of her own fending off Maribelle Mellonbelly, befriends Hakata and ultimately ends up saving his life with her incredible fireball power! In between there is much ridiculousness, like dinosaur riding and panda bears who teach Spanish but are really secret agents.

At the end, since Hakata hasn't been able to contact his family, Miyumi invites him over to her place for the semester break where her grandfather will see if he can fix Hakata's communication device.

So cute, silly and fun to read. It's drawn in a decidedly anime style. Kind of anime-lite.(less)

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Jul 25, 2011 Jerzy Drozd rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics-i-recommend

I picked up his book while Dave was in town for Kids Read Comics, and I’ve been reading it over and over ever since. It’s one of those rare comics aimed at young people written and drawn by a guy who actually remembers what it’s like to be a kid. The comic is filled with an exuberant sincerity, the characters are super fun, and the jokes have that rascally sweetness that you rarely find outside of a Muppets special back when Jim Henson was alive.
The story is about a group of students attending a...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, no-longer-own

Reason for Reading: It sounded like a lot of fun.

This tells of the happenings of first semester at Astronaut Academy. Opening with the official promotional guide the principal shows off the school and then we start off with the main character Hakata Soy arriving at the school a month late due to his former status as a space hero. Then in a unique way, each short "chapter" starts off with "My name is ...." and is told from the point of view of various different classmates, the occasional teacher...more

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May 12, 2011 Andrew Shuping rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

I got this through Goodreads Giveaway program (yay!)

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity is the first of at least two planned books (the sequel probably coming out next year). It tells the story of Hakata Soy as the new kid at Astronaut Academy as he settles into the school and gets used to his classmates (who honestly, are just a wee bit weird) and tries to catch up to his classwork (he was held captive by his archenemies for a few weeks so was late to the start of school.) And as he settles in he d...more I got this through Goodreads Giveaway program (yay!)

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity is the first of at least two planned books (the sequel probably coming out next year). It tells the story of Hakata Soy as the new kid at Astronaut Academy as he settles into the school and gets used to his classmates (who honestly, are just a wee bit weird) and tries to catch up to his classwork (he was held captive by his archenemies for a few weeks so was late to the start of school.) And as he settles in he discovers his enemies are still out there and maybe on their way. In the meantime Hakata has to navigate the weird waters of his classmates and hopefully make a couple of friends along the way.

This has been a bit difficult of a book for me to review and I think that the main problem is that I'm not the target audience. The book is really meant for ages 7 to 14ish. And unlike other books for that age group (like Owly) it doesn't translate well for adults. The biggest problems for me are the sense of humor and the way the story has multiple subchapters, each only lasting a few pages, and then switching to another viewpoint. It's not a bad thing, it just comes close to doing my head in at the moment. So for adults...put yourself in the mindset of a 8 year old and go hog wild.

But for kids...I think they'd really enjoy it, especially elementary age kids. It reads like how you often hear them talk and tell stories. And the fact that it switches viewpoints every few pages is a bonus because it allows for kids to find the character they identify with. It reminds me a lot of some of the current cartoons on television today (I mean that in the best way possible) and the story isn't something that you would regret letting your kid read. The artwork suits the story well and reminds me a lot of the artwork from the cartoon "Kids Next Door" (come to think of it so does the storytelling.)

It's a romping good adventure if you're the right age (or have the right mindset) and I'd highly recommend it.(less)

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Jan 01, 2011 Reader rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-december-2010

Wow! You ain't never seen anything quite like this before. On the surface this is a graphic novel tale of Hakata Soy, former space superhero, now a regular kid attending Astronaut Academy like a bunch of his fellows. Unfortunately for Soy, his past is sneaking up on him and he's going to have to work through a lot of his own issues before he can truly be happy with his fellow (rather crazy) classmates. That's the basic story as it stands, but Dave Roman has added some truly bizarre elements of h...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel-juvenile, graphic-novel-fantasy-sf

This grapic novel is made up of a wide range of short vignettes, most of which are very goofy. Once in a while, something serious sneaks in. Really, the book would be about a 3 1/2 star rating, but the format of the stories kept me from giving it 4. The goofiness sometimes takes over at the wrong point in a story, and gets distracting at a few wrong moments. Still, the overall book is fun.
The premise is that the characters are attending school on a space station, for reasons that made sense to t...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Claire rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, adorabs, fuzzy-feel-good, favorites, low-romance, me-gusta-much, quick-reads, re-read-worthy, volume-1, review-on-blog

Synopsis

Hakata Soy's past life as the leader of a futuristic super team won't stay in the past!
The former space hero is doing his best to keep his head down at Astronaut Academy. Things aren't going so great, though. The most popular girl in school has it in for him. His best friend won't return his calls. And his new roommate is a complete jock who only cares about Fireball.
Hakata just wants to make a fresh start. But how will he find time to study Anti-Gravity Gymnastics and Tactical Randomnes...more

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May 11, 2011 Tiffany rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, read-and-reviewed

I received my copy of this book as an advance read through the first reads program.

I must say, while I am a sixteen year old girl with little interest in the majority of young adult books, this graphic novel for 10-14 year old boys took me by surprise. The humor was witty, the illustrations were adorable, the story was easy to relate to and I quickly fell in love with the quirky dialogue. Bravo.

The story of Astronaut Academy primarily revolves around Hakata Soy. Though Hakata was previously a su...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Ms. Patterson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hakata Soy is the mysterious new boy at Astronaut Academy. He arrived about a month into the semester and isn't willing to share much about himself. Hakata finds himself amidst an eclectic group of students, including a spoiled rich girl with a crush on him, a roommate only interested in sports, a girl with an affinity for always showing up at the right time, and a robot out to destroy him.

The story starts off extremely entertaining and somewhat humorous, but about 100 pages into it, I started t...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Meredith rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, guy-reads, humor, j-fic, male-protagonist, sci-fi

Astronaut Academy, I'm still not sure how I feel about you.

I want to be all kinds in love with this GN, and it was definitely funny at times, but something just seemed "off" about it--like it wasn't quite ready for the presses yet. I'm not sure that kids or teens will understand the jokes the characters make, or the references they drop. I also thought the plot was too scattered to easily follow. Frequently, I found myself thinking, "I don't even know what's going on in this scene." On several o...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Eti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dave Roman knows something about layers. Like a delicious parfait, Astronaut Academy is a hilarious romp through outer space guaranteed to delight both adult and child readers. The characters are parts adorable, quirky, and deep. Told through short vignettes that delve into the lives of each character, Astronaut Academy allows readers to see the entire picture of the academy and see how it all fits together. Honestly, it defies description but trust me when I say that it should be devoured like...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-books-ever, favorites, freetime-fun-books

Hakata Soy is a former space hero who becomes a new student at Astronaut Academy, a futuristic school in outer space. Hakata wants a fresh start at his new school, but it isn't easy with his past bothering him and an evil robot clone of himself that trying to destroy him.

Astronaut Academy is a fun, imaginative book. It has an unforgettable cast of characters, a great plot, and a very creative setting. What I really like about this book is that it keeps the reader entertained with humor, romance,...more

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Jul 06, 2011 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-ya, sf-fantasy

Graphic novel set in an orbiting middle school and with a cast of manga-style preteens. Though maybe a little too long, and with some heterdox spelling that might or might not have been intentional, it's hip and funny---sprinkled with lines like:

"It looks as if the Gotcha Birds have TRANSFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGY OF THEIR OWN! Which means we must stop them before they use it for EVIL instead of community service!"

"Take this medallion. Any time you need our help just press it and say the word 'AAARRGH...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Raina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: funny, graphicnovel, j, sci-fi, short-stories

I warmed up to this a lot as I went. At first, I didn't really get it - it feels like a homage to manga, not only in style, but in vocabulary and speech patterns. I'm not a reader of manga, so I kept trying to figure out if it was actually a rough translation of something from Japan, or something. But after a while, I got mostly used to the affectation.

This is a series of slices of life and/or character studies of the students and employees at Astronaut Academy. As we went along, I was impressed...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Gretchen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I believe the target audience for this comic-style book is probably pre-teens, but I enjoyed it. It's fun and a fast read. It tells the stories of a bunch of kids in school at the astronaut academy, and how a couple of them have to fight off an evil robot. It is told from different kids' perspectives and I really liked several of the kids, and there is some good humor in the book. Though, not sure if this is because it was an advanced edition or not, but some of the writing seemed to be not corr...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is, bar none, one of the most charming, delightful comic books (or "graphic novels", if you prefer) that I have ever read. I have a soft spot for clever, self-referential humour and "breaking the fourth wall". This book does those things without being cynical, contrived, or bitter. It is just simply quality comic-making. It is even (at one point in particular) unexpectedly moving. I'm tempted to say that if you buy this book and are not won over by its charms, come see me and I'll give you...more

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May 12, 2011 Kjersti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, given-free-to-review, 2011-books-read

This is a fun book geared towards preteens, but it can easily be enjoyed by older age groups as well, especially when read together with younger kids. This is due to there being plenty of cultural parody type humor references in this book.

Overall this is a great book about a super hero's past catching up to him at Astronaut Academy. The plot flow is odd with different chapters being from the perspective of different characters, but it works pretty well. Only the first semester is covered and whi...more

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May 18, 2011 Sarah W rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: firstreads, graphic-novel, 2011

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity is a science fiction graphic novel for the middle school audience. Hakata Soy arrives at the academy a month after the start of fall semester. On his first day he finds himself paired with an unsympathetic roommate and narrowly avoids giving his origins story in class. He stumbles into the ongoing feud between dissatisfied ultra-rich Mirabelle Melonberry and Miyumi San. The adults are often illogical and the students melodramatic in this light-hearted fare. The ch...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone 7 and older

Recommended to Beth by: Goodreads winner!

My 11 year old son read this book and here is his review:

"I liked the book because it was funny, interesting, and odd at the same time. My favorite character is Hakata Soy because he was in like a team of super hero robots, and he saved the bunny planet from the evil bird people. I actually laughed out loud a little bit reading this book. I thought it was a fairly quick read and I'm a slow reader. The book actually kept my atention and I usually don't really like to read. I would recommend this...more

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May 21, 2011 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, own, kids, sci-fi-fantasy-horror, received

I won Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity from First Reads. I look forward to reading it now that its arrived. I really like the metallic cover. I'll preread this and then pass it along to one of my nephews. This looks like the sort of thing they enjoy.

It took, me a while to get into the rhythm of this book and I never quite got all the way into the storylines. But I think that was because I'm not the target audience for this graphic novel. I"m going to pass this along eventually to one of my nephew...more

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May 10, 2011 Kelsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

To be honest, this graphic novel completely took me by surprise, but in a good way. Since the target demographic is 10-14 (and I'm assuming boys), I thought that there wouldn't be much interest for me while reading it.

Dave Roman has a certain deadpan humor, and it definitely shows in this book. I loved it! There were many instances where he poked fun at our society, and the education system in particular. Sure, most of this would be lost on young boys, but I certainly appreciated it. He probably...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Myers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ggn-nominations-2012

I loved this comic. I have never seen anything like it- each chapter introduces a new adorable character who adds a different dimension to the story. Through each character we learn a little more about life at Astronaut Academy and about the mysterious new student with sharp hair, Hakata Soy. This comic was hilarious- there were so many quirky and funny lines throughout that I found myself laughing during much of the book. Kids are going to love this one- I can't wait to share it with my student...more

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May 25, 2011 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received this book through the GoodReads First Reads program.

Astronaut academy had a very cute story and was a fun read. I enjoyed the art and the style of it. I think premise was interesting and intriguing.

However, as an avid comic reader, I definitely felt that it lacked depth and came off as somewhat dry. It did not feel like the story really went anywhere even though it had a great premise and was adorable. I enjoyed the nerdy references in it and very much enjoyed the style and the artwor...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, fantasy-science-fiction, graphic-novel, humor, sharpschu

This graphic novel was quite an adventure. The main character is Hakata Soy, a former space hero, and he is off to Astronaut Academy. Quite a large cast of characters is introduced throughout the story, each with his/her own talents and troubles. Roman parodies a lot of subjects and keeps the action frenetic and the plot line zany. I'm interested in seeing how it goes over in my class.

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title link	preview: Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity
avg rating	preview: Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity Goodreads rating: 3.57 (312 ratings)
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