By Ben Hatke
A brave, funny space adventure with a heroine who runs toward the trouble she caused.
Zita and her friend Joseph find a fallen gadget in a crater with one big red button. Zita pushes it. A portal tears open, something reaches through and yanks Joseph to a distant planet, one that's about to be smashed by an asteroid. So Zita jumps in after him, and picks up a ragtag crew of misfit aliens and broken-down robots along the way.
Zita is the kind of hero a reluctant reader roots for right away. She causes the whole disaster by pressing a button she shouldn't, then spends the book bravely putting it right. It's fast, it's funny, and the alien crew is full of the weird, lovable sidekicks children go for. Light on text and big on heart, and it's the first of three, so a child who clicks with it has somewhere to go next.