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Lily & Kosmo in Outer Outer Space
“Space opera charm in a modern kid–sized package.” – BCCB (starred review)
Explore outer outer space where dastardly villains await in this hilarious and inventive illustrated middle grade novel.
Brooklyn, Earth. 1949.
Lily Lupino is going to be an astronaut when she grows up. For now, she’ll have to settle for listening to science fiction programs on the radio. But when certified Spacetronaut Kosmo Kidd crash lands his wind-up rocket ship in Lily’s kitchen, it’s a chance Lily can’t pass up!
Mistaking Lily for a boy, Kosmo agrees to take her back to his floating treehouse in the stars, but it doesn’t take long for the other Spacetronauts to figure out that Lily is a girl. Kosmo has accidentally broken Spacetronaut Rule #1: NO WIMMEN ALOWD!
Banished to the far reaches of Outer Outer Space, Lily and Kosmo explore exotic alien worlds, meet a menagerie of colorful creatures, and tangle with the vilest villain in space, The Mean-Man of Morgo. But Lily’s greatest challenge is proving to her new Spacetronaut peers that a girl from Brooklyn can hold her own among the galaxy’s unruliest rascals.
Explore outer outer space where dastardly villains await in this hilarious and inventive illustrated middle grade novel.
Brooklyn, Earth. 1949.
Lily Lupino is going to be an astronaut when she grows up. For now, she’ll have to settle for listening to science fiction programs on the radio. But when certified Spacetronaut Kosmo Kidd crash lands his wind-up rocket ship in Lily’s kitchen, it’s a chance Lily can’t pass up!
Mistaking Lily for a boy, Kosmo agrees to take her back to his floating treehouse in the stars, but it doesn’t take long for the other Spacetronauts to figure out that Lily is a girl. Kosmo has accidentally broken Spacetronaut Rule #1: NO WIMMEN ALOWD!
Banished to the far reaches of Outer Outer Space, Lily and Kosmo explore exotic alien worlds, meet a menagerie of colorful creatures, and tangle with the vilest villain in space, The Mean-Man of Morgo. But Lily’s greatest challenge is proving to her new Spacetronaut peers that a girl from Brooklyn can hold her own among the galaxy’s unruliest rascals.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 30, 2018
4 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Ashley
1 book1 followerJonathan Ashley is an author, playwright, concept artist, and filmmaker from Arizona. He studied fine art at Boston’s Museum School and filmmaking at NYU. His illustrations and designs have been featured in films, commercials, comic books, and puppet shows. He lives with his wife and daughter in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, on the Brooklyn side.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 12, 2018
I was excited about this book after seeing the cover and getting into the first chapter. Although it was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, two stars is all I can give it due to a couple of issues. The first one being the story was very didactic in regard to the female gender. I'm all for stories about strong girls and women but this was over-the-top in it's preachiness and stereotyping. The other thing that turned me off was the longer the book went the weirder it got. Spanking was even brought into the mix which just seemed really out of place for the story itself. Although I'm sure there are kids who will get into this book, for the sheer quality of writing I'll stick with my two stars. It's too bad as I feel without those issues this could have been a really good read.
August 18, 2018
I cannot wait to get this book in the hands of my second and third graders. They will love how brave and adventurous Lily is and they will be tickled by the silliness of scenes. They always want a great adventure and this one will bring them fun and excitement with a bit about the 1940s!
June 12, 2022
Lily Lupino wants to be an astronaut, but makes do in the meantime by losing herself in the exciting radio adventures of Trip Darrow. An ill-timed impulse costs her radio privileges and all of her space toys, but she soon finds consolation in a real space adventure with Kosmo Kidd, Spacetronaut.
As a librarian, I should know better than to judge a book by its cover, but this one looked like so much fun I couldn't help myself. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The book is set in the 40s with the author leaning very, very hard into a sort of rat-a-tat cadence and diction so stylized I'm not 100% convinced it ever existed outside of movies of the period. It was a choice for sure. Sometimes (like when Libba Bray dived headfirst into 20s slang with one of her series) you eventually settle into it. This one never really felt natural to me; it kept taking me out of the plot.
Another thing that was uncomfortable throughout was whatever was happening with gender roles, which was also something that was leaned into *really* hard. It's hard to say what the intent was. Did the author spotlight the sexism and toxic masculinity of the time to wink at us about how far we've come since the 40s? Was this his attempt to summon up some nostalgia for a simpler time? It's probably a bad sign that I honestly don't know which it is. Either way, I don't think the end result is as much fun as the author thinks it is. It especially isn't fun if you are a reader who identifies either as female or LGBTQIA+ and are a little too aware of all the current-day nonsense and inequity to be charmed by things like Lily having her dreams stomped on by her father, constantly and intentionally being misgendered because of her hair, devalued and underestimated by Kosmo's crew because of her gender, or having the all-female presenting band of aliens they run into feel like stereotypes from a Captain Kirk-era Star Trek episode.
I saw some reviewers point out the race factor, but I'm not mad at Ashley for choosing to showcase characters of color as a white author. More representation is needed, and if we require all white authors to only write white characters that just doesn't reflect the reality of a lot of communities. But I feel like this could be done better than it is here. It feels like there could be a little more context given. Something showing thought or nuance into the characters' backgrounds that would make it feel like he actually did research or had a reader involved somewhere and wasn't checking a box to convince fools like me to see the cover and expect representation beyond just a cursory physical description.
As a librarian, I should know better than to judge a book by its cover, but this one looked like so much fun I couldn't help myself. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The book is set in the 40s with the author leaning very, very hard into a sort of rat-a-tat cadence and diction so stylized I'm not 100% convinced it ever existed outside of movies of the period. It was a choice for sure. Sometimes (like when Libba Bray dived headfirst into 20s slang with one of her series) you eventually settle into it. This one never really felt natural to me; it kept taking me out of the plot.
Another thing that was uncomfortable throughout was whatever was happening with gender roles, which was also something that was leaned into *really* hard. It's hard to say what the intent was. Did the author spotlight the sexism and toxic masculinity of the time to wink at us about how far we've come since the 40s? Was this his attempt to summon up some nostalgia for a simpler time? It's probably a bad sign that I honestly don't know which it is. Either way, I don't think the end result is as much fun as the author thinks it is. It especially isn't fun if you are a reader who identifies either as female or LGBTQIA+ and are a little too aware of all the current-day nonsense and inequity to be charmed by things like Lily having her dreams stomped on by her father, constantly and intentionally being misgendered because of her hair, devalued and underestimated by Kosmo's crew because of her gender, or having the all-female presenting band of aliens they run into feel like stereotypes from a Captain Kirk-era Star Trek episode.
I saw some reviewers point out the race factor, but I'm not mad at Ashley for choosing to showcase characters of color as a white author. More representation is needed, and if we require all white authors to only write white characters that just doesn't reflect the reality of a lot of communities. But I feel like this could be done better than it is here. It feels like there could be a little more context given. Something showing thought or nuance into the characters' backgrounds that would make it feel like he actually did research or had a reader involved somewhere and wasn't checking a box to convince fools like me to see the cover and expect representation beyond just a cursory physical description.
February 1, 2019
Hard to believe this book was published in 2018. The main character cuts off her hair so she can be like her astronaut hero, but then her father blusters and fumes about girls knowing their place, and throws away all her astronaut toys.
Then she rockets off to outer space where she meets up with a band of boy spacestronauts with a No-Girls-Allowed space club. (Their other big rule? No Blubbering. I kid you not. Sigh.) I'm not saying that misogyny is over, but it feels like the author is sort of missing some nuance here. And like he's missing the real, lived impact of negotiating a sexist and misogynistic world. The villains in the real world aren't all mustache twirling baddies, and the sexism girls encounter is often of a subtler nature. But it most definitely still exists. The depiction in this book felt pretty dismissive. Like this (white, male) author was trying veeeeery hard to stay current in the #MeToo era. Like he believes that somehow misogyny has gone the way of old-fashioned radio operas and Doo Wop music and the other 1940's era cultural artifacts that populate this story.
(Also, I don't love that the book tries to earn brownie points for diversity by featuring a female protagonist and picture of racially diverse cast on the cover - especially when the author is a white dude.)
And honestly, the biggest sin? The book was just so boring, and all its references so dated. Do kids nowadays know what Doo Wap is? Are they going to be swept up by an epic thumb-war battle? Will they resonate with the message that -- Gasp! -- girls can be astronauts and have short hair, too!
This book just felt like really pedantic and honestly, sort of clueless. Very disappointing.
Then she rockets off to outer space where she meets up with a band of boy spacestronauts with a No-Girls-Allowed space club. (Their other big rule? No Blubbering. I kid you not. Sigh.) I'm not saying that misogyny is over, but it feels like the author is sort of missing some nuance here. And like he's missing the real, lived impact of negotiating a sexist and misogynistic world. The villains in the real world aren't all mustache twirling baddies, and the sexism girls encounter is often of a subtler nature. But it most definitely still exists. The depiction in this book felt pretty dismissive. Like this (white, male) author was trying veeeeery hard to stay current in the #MeToo era. Like he believes that somehow misogyny has gone the way of old-fashioned radio operas and Doo Wop music and the other 1940's era cultural artifacts that populate this story.
(Also, I don't love that the book tries to earn brownie points for diversity by featuring a female protagonist and picture of racially diverse cast on the cover - especially when the author is a white dude.)
And honestly, the biggest sin? The book was just so boring, and all its references so dated. Do kids nowadays know what Doo Wap is? Are they going to be swept up by an epic thumb-war battle? Will they resonate with the message that -- Gasp! -- girls can be astronauts and have short hair, too!
This book just felt like really pedantic and honestly, sort of clueless. Very disappointing.
September 4, 2019
Imagine cleaning out an attic in a old house and coming across a riveting, whimsical and beautifully illustrated sci-fi adventure from 1949 you'd never heard of. That's what it felt like diving into the mad-cap world of Lily & Kosmo where outer outer space is full of New York City dialects, mutant chicken gas station proprietors, sock-hop-ready fisherwomen, and of course a mustached super villain with an armada of henchpeople intent on spreading boredom and eradicating the mischievous glee this book overflows with.
Unlike a book from the late 40s, rebellious astronaut-in-training Lily Lupino is our true hero, not the arrogant damsel-saving spaceman she hears on the radio (that the book wryly satirizes). The wonderfully preposterous Kosmo Kid is rescued more than once by Lily's cunning and he ultimately learns a valuable lesson or three from her.
Not only was this just an exhilarating ride though a delicious world, I was deeply invested in Lily's struggle to be taken seriously by her family and the characters that seemed to reflect them fun-house mirror style in space. It's quite a feat to pull off real depth and stakes in a story with a wind-up rocket ship named Mildred and a pivotal scene involving a thumb war.
In an age when the sci-fi genre has become so bleak and dystopian even in young-adult literature, Lily and Kosmo is refreshing flashback to a time when the future was not all doom and gloom, minus its problematic baggage.
Unlike a book from the late 40s, rebellious astronaut-in-training Lily Lupino is our true hero, not the arrogant damsel-saving spaceman she hears on the radio (that the book wryly satirizes). The wonderfully preposterous Kosmo Kid is rescued more than once by Lily's cunning and he ultimately learns a valuable lesson or three from her.
Not only was this just an exhilarating ride though a delicious world, I was deeply invested in Lily's struggle to be taken seriously by her family and the characters that seemed to reflect them fun-house mirror style in space. It's quite a feat to pull off real depth and stakes in a story with a wind-up rocket ship named Mildred and a pivotal scene involving a thumb war.
In an age when the sci-fi genre has become so bleak and dystopian even in young-adult literature, Lily and Kosmo is refreshing flashback to a time when the future was not all doom and gloom, minus its problematic baggage.
December 19, 2018
I'm sure you've wondered: what if J. M. Barrie hadn't written Peter Pan in 1904's London, but instead wrote a similar tale of Lost Boys, fantasy, adventure, and villains in 1940s America, and was highly influenced by the funny papers, the Cold War, science fiction, and Buffalo Bill? And it was hilarious? I think that's what this is??
Lily is fascinated by the weekly radio broadcast of Trip Darrow's space adventures, and longs to be an astronaut herself. Unfortunately for her, her obtuse parents don't share her progressive view of women's rights in space. After she hacks off her long hair to look more like Trip, they ground her and throw away all her space toys. But her practical astronautic 'do doesn't go to waste; Spacetronaut Kosmo Kidd crashlands in her kitchen, whisking Lily (and baby brother Alfie), into not just outer space, but Outer Outer Space - the Wild West of the universe where kids roam free, wrangle comets, and ruffle the feathery mustache of the Mean-Man of Morgo, who seeks to rid the galaxy of the plague of pint-sized vermin, AKA children.
Yee-haw! What a wild, silly romp through time and space, and delightful bucking of normative genres. Jonathan Ashley's spot artwork is as amusing as his writing. You might roll your eyes through much of the Looney-Tunes-worthy humor, but hey, you just as well might roll on the ground laughing. I for one loved it!
Lily is fascinated by the weekly radio broadcast of Trip Darrow's space adventures, and longs to be an astronaut herself. Unfortunately for her, her obtuse parents don't share her progressive view of women's rights in space. After she hacks off her long hair to look more like Trip, they ground her and throw away all her space toys. But her practical astronautic 'do doesn't go to waste; Spacetronaut Kosmo Kidd crashlands in her kitchen, whisking Lily (and baby brother Alfie), into not just outer space, but Outer Outer Space - the Wild West of the universe where kids roam free, wrangle comets, and ruffle the feathery mustache of the Mean-Man of Morgo, who seeks to rid the galaxy of the plague of pint-sized vermin, AKA children.
Yee-haw! What a wild, silly romp through time and space, and delightful bucking of normative genres. Jonathan Ashley's spot artwork is as amusing as his writing. You might roll your eyes through much of the Looney-Tunes-worthy humor, but hey, you just as well might roll on the ground laughing. I for one loved it!
July 30, 2019
I picked this one up based solely on the cover, but it just didn't live up to the potential. The artwork throughout was fantastic- expressive, interesting, fun - that's what's earned this review its second star. The writing itself wasn't bad. But the story hinges on a certain nostalgia for the 50s space craze (despite taking place in 1949, everything screamed 50s to me) that I really don't have an interest in personally and have some issues with as a professional recommender of books for children. There are so many references to sexism, stereotypes galore... ugh. I think the author was trying to satirize these, but didn't successfully undercut the exaggerated misogyny in order to show its true colors. Lily is shown as an exception to all the other female characters- the Piranha Sisters are ultra-girly - competing to win Kosmo's affections, Lily's mother is a hysterical ditz who is "broken" (father's word) when Lily cuts her hair, and the secretary encompasses all the mean old spinster stereotypes there are. Kosmo is shown as black, but no other side characters (and we see a bevy of them) seem to be anything but white, excepting one "Spaniard" in the Lost Boys set. I could go on, but this review is already ridiculously long.
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December 12, 2018I received a copy of this book from Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews