Review: Look Up! by Nathan Bryon, illustrated by Dapo Adeola

Rocket is a space-obsessed kid with a steadfast ambition to become the greatest female space traveller that ever lived, in this endearing picture book, Look Up! 

Motivated by the prospect of viewing an exciting meteor shower, Rocket desperately tries to enthuse everyone she meets to literally look up and take in the beauty of the natural world. Will she succeed in her mission, or will the dreaded mobile phones triumph?

This book is more than a story: it's sprinkled with educational facts (historical and scientific) delivered in a way that young readers will love and understand.

And, really refreshingly, Black females are celebrated in Nathan Bryon's debut book. Not only does it have a Black girl as the main character, it introduces children to the first Black female astronaut in space, Dr Mae Jemison. That said, Rocket’s older sibling could, perhaps, have been female too, to avoid the stereotypical trope of the apathetic young Black male.

The setting of Look Up! is a town that feels like it sits somewhere between the US and UK, almost as if the publisher has purposely tried to appeal to both audiences. There is something very subtly US about the gloriously vivid illustrations from Dapo Adeola: high-top hairstyles, Phoenix flyer, basketball, the whole architectural feel of the townscape, yet the written text has a firmly British tone which jars slightly against the images. Therefore, if you choose to use Look Up! as a resource, you may wish to keep discussion about the story setting open-ended. The book would make a lovely introduction to exploring space in EYFS or learning about international historical figures in KS1.

Overall, Look Up! is a witty inspirational and uplifting story that will instill, in children, a sense of ambition, perseverance and self-belief. It also offers a crucial message about our overuse of digital technology, especially mobile phones, reminding us of the value of connecting, in real time, to others and nature. 

Guide for teachers and parents

Genre	Narrative – stories with familiar settings
Child-led interests (EYFS)	space, nature, light and dark
Age group (EYFS, KS1, KS2)	Reception and KS1
Curriculum links (EYFS/NC)	EYFS: CAL Maths UW  KS1: History – the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements…
Suitability	whole-class teaching, storytime, class library; home-reader
General features	simple present tense, first-person narration, speech bubbles, use of bold text, punctuation (exclamation and question marks); instructional and prepositional language (look up); illustrations also tell the story

All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.