The Space Between

By Jess McGeachin
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Jess has won many fancy-pants awards (as he calls them), the latest is winning the 2023 CBCA Eve Pownall Award for Deep.  His debut picture book was Fly, 2019, and since then he has written and illustrated 11 more as well as holding down a day job at the Melbourne Museum.

His latest work, The Space Between is about how friendship is affected by distance. Max and Milo do everything together, every day, and in their rocket ship even the stars and planets don’t seem too far to reach. But when Milo has to move away, the space between them seems too great . . . and Max must find another way to navigate his friendship and the galaxy.

The story unfolds through carefully balanced words and pictures. Jess has fun with the space theme, using the front and back endpapers to show the solar system, give us some facts and comments. The boys use their imagination to remodel an old car wreck into a rocket ship and use it to travel the galaxy. His illustrations use a warm colour palette and are easy to read. Max life is very simple: he is often shown barefoot; he lives with his grey haired grandma ( shown quaintly rocking on the porch wearing her slippers); the house he lives in is very small and chickens scratch around outside, all in contrast to Milo’s more affluent circumstances.

Children who enjoy imaginative play and are interested in space will enjoy this gentle story.

Penguin 2024
Jess McGeachin