And if it has, we’re one step closer to having a space-based chapter book that everyone can enjoy. Because by then Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce should hopefully have found its readership.

But let me call you back in fifteen years and maybe your answer will be different. But how many of them are classics? How many of them are memorable? How many could you tell to the person on the street and get a spark of recognition in return? For now, none.

Oh, there are tons of books where kids go to space, sure. Where are the books about kids in space that have remained within the public consciousness? Fact of the matter is, there aren’t any. The kind we blasted into in the 1960s and then never returned to. What’s that? You can’t think of any significant children’s books that took place in space? Would The Little Prince count? I guess so, but that’s not really the kind of space I mean. Now just pluck out for me the ones that took place in outer space. The ones that encouraged you to consider the world around you. The ones you still think about sometimes. Think about the books you read when you were a child. Recent books include The Unforgotten Coat (2011), shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again (2011) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race against Time (2013) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon (2013) The Astounding Broccoli Boy (2015) and Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth (2016), which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.Close your eyes. His third novel, Cosmic, was published in 2008, and was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in the same year.

His second children's novel, Framed, was shortlisted for both the 2005 Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award.įrank Cottrell Boyce has won several awards for his screenplays, and lives in Liverpool with his family. In 2004, he wrote a book for children based on his own screenplay - Millions - and this book won the 2004 Carnegie Medal. He also worked with other directors, including writing the screenplays for the films Revenger's Tragedy, in 2002, an adaptation of Thomas Middleton's 17th-century play Hilary and Jackie Millions and Grow Your Own in 2007. He then collaborated with director Michael Winterbottom on the film Forget About Me, in 1990, and this was followed by further screenplays written for the same director: Butterfly Kiss in 1995 Welcome to Sarajevo in 1997 The Claim in 2000, originally based on Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge 24 Hour Party People in 2002 Code 46 in 2003 and A Cock and Bull Story in 2005. He first worked as a television critic for Living Marxism magazine, and wrote episodes for Coronation Street and Brookside. Frank Cottrell Boyce was born in Liverpool and studied English at Oxford University.

Cosmic frank cottrell