Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
July 1, 2004/in Fiction 8-10 Junior/Middle /by Angie Hill
BfK Rating:
BfK 147 July 2004
Reviewer: Clive Barnes
ISBN: 978-1405208321
Price: £3.99
Publisher: Egmont Books Ltd
Genre: Fiction
Age Range: 8-10 Junior/Middle
Length: 96pp
Buy the Book

Captain Fact's Space Adventure

Author: Knife and Packer

 

Review also includes:

Captain Fact’s Dinosaur Adventure, 978-1405208338

 

It seems that in publishing, like TV programme making, one of the ways of coming up with new, and hopefully profitable, ideas is to combine some that are already well tried and tested. The pedigree of Egmont’s new venture into the popular children’s information market is pretty obvious. It’s Captain Underpants meets Horrible Histories.

In this new series, presented in semi-cartoon format, the inept weather forecaster, Cliff Thornhill, and his dog Puddles are transformed into Captain Fact and his faithful sidekick, Knowledge. Their perilous super-hero missions enable them to travel at a comfortably amiable and superficial level through various subject areas. In these two titles they travel back in time to return a baby dinosaur to its mother and across space to Mars to rescue Dr. Barnabus, a super-intelligent Ape, whose space ship Ape-ollo 13 is running low on bananas. In the series, there is also a Creepy Crawly Adventure and an Egyptian Adventure.

At points in each story, Captain Fact suffers a Fact Attack, signalled by a twitching of some part of his body, which leads to the eruption of a double page of fascinating facts about, say, animals in space travel, or the habits and discussions of Triceratops. The basic idea is not bad, although you have to rely on the reader to be able to sift out the fact from the fantasy. But its realisation is undistinguished. Like the cartoons in Captain Underpants, these illustrations have a deliberate under-the-desk quality that reminds me of the efforts that the more talented of my mates could manage as a diversion in a tedious lesson. And, although Captain Fact is supposed to have had the entire contents of a library etched into his brain by a lightning strike, the number of facts that he shares with his readers offers very little value for £3.99 compared to any of Scholastic’s Horrible series. The ultimate test of a series like this will be whether the intended customers and their parents are prepared to put their hands in their pockets.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Angie Hill http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Angie Hill2004-07-01 14:44:062023-06-13 14:49:28Captain Fact’s Space Adventure

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue Bfk 272 May 2025
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

Effervescent, scintillating, riveting!’ Collection of ‘colossal’ word poems wins the CLiPPA

June 20, 2025

Winners of the 2025 Carnegie Medals announced

June 19, 2025

Inclusive Books for Children book-gifting scheme expands again

June 18, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
Jumping Beany Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye
Scroll to top