I think the author was counting on the fact that nerds from different factions don't mix. Meaning that reader nerds don't play online games and gamer nerds don't read kids' novels. It’s also just a great book about dads and how important they are. Adults reading will understand pretty early on that Florida’s supposedly perfect father that she's always comparing Liam to is just a figment of her imagination. In fact, fathers are sort of the most consistent theme of the book. Early on Liam comes to the conclusion that his dad only speaks on five separate topics of conversation. Then, when he finds himself a kind of pseudo-father, he steals his dad’s book on how to talk to teens, and finds himself in the old man’s shoes. Finally, even when he’s in the most trouble, Liam can’t help but think that his dad may still find him, even in the farthest reaches of space. It’s this childlike faith that keeps reminding you that for all his posturing, Liam’s really just a kid like the rest of them. And when Liam acts like a kid, it always makes sense. He doesn’t do it randomly. He just reacts to situations like a child would want to and the result is sometimes funny, sometimes disastrous. Which in turn makes his sacrifice at the end all the more impressive. Well as an elementary school librarian children's literature is my business (and fortunately for me also my passion). My husband is a big gamer and I play with him. So I guess I qualify as that rare (possibly statistically non-existent) double nerd who both reads children's books and plays an online game. Having said that and putting the game aside I thought this was a very cute story and that Liam is a likable character. It was sweet and tame enough for middle graders but enough adventure to keep kids a bit older engaged. Frank is also a successful writer of film scripts and was the official scriptwriter for the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, playing an important role devising the ceremony with Danny Boyle. He is also a judge for the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition. You can read a great interview with Frank and one of his fellow judge, Francesca Simon here!

Being shortlisted for the Guardian Prize gives you a particularly warm glow because it is awarded by a panel of your fellow authors. Past winners include my childhood heroes - Alan Garner, Leon Garfield, Joan Aiken - and contemporary heroes like Mark Haddon, Geraldine McCaughrean and Meg Rosoff.” Florida Kirby reminded me a little too much of, well, me. She may not know anything about gravity or outer space, but she knows every single celebrity, who they're married to, and how they became famous. Her primary goal in life is to become famous herself, and playing the role of Liam's daughter (yes, they're the same age!) just might get her there. Boyce did a masterful job of allowing Florida to evolve over the course of the story. She could have easily remained a shallow fame-seeker, but as the story progresses the reader gets to see more and more of Florida's heart and internal motivation. In case you couldn't tell, she's my favorite. The stars look different from here. There's a lot more of them, for one thing. Big swirls and knots and clouds of them, so bright they hurt to look at. When you're in it, space looks like the biggest firework display ever – except it's on pause. It looks like freeze-frame fireworks. Even if you're Completely Doomed, you've got to be impressed.I looked down at the pedals. I knew one of them was the accelerator. I just wasn't sure which one. One lesson the World of Warcraft teaches you is that if you want to succeed on the next level, you need to acquire new skills. Don't level up until you've skilled up. Sadly this was a lesson I'd forgotten. I was pretty sure though that the accelerator was the one in the middle. I had my foot on it when the door on the passenger side opened and a very familiar voice said, 'You. Out. Now. Come on.'" The book seemed to be broken into two parts, there was a fun kids story in there and then there was lots of descriptive stuff about flying around the moon and thought processing of feelings. A big chunk of the last third of the book lost its fun part and I could tell my daughter was, whilst still interested, wanted to return to the fun bits, not the relationship bit. It was a little strange, it was almost if the author had designed this book to be read aloud by a parent to a child between 9 and 11. But I don't know many other friends who still read to their kids when they get past 6. This was a strange book, the main character is a 12 yo boy who is very tall, has some facial hair and often gets confused as an adult. The characters are from a small town called Bootle in England, which is somewhere near Liverpool I believe. So I needed to watch a bit of Red Dwarf to practice my Liverpudlian accent before we started. The young lad enters a competition with Drax World, a mobile phone company building a theme park in China. He pretends to be the Dad of one of his class mates, a girl who he has a typical 12 yo relationship with. Said relationship becomes confused when they realise that acting as her dad allows them to go and do things normally not allowed for two 12 year olds. Oh yes. Liam's voice is wonderfully wry and hilarious, and he also coined a word that's going into my vocabulary: dadliness. The quality or attributes of being a dad. What does a dad do? He gets you out of a tight spot, and then glares at you disapprovingly until you learn your lesson. He calls you "princess" and remembers your birthday. He pushes you to succeed. He'll do anything to save you. When we got the manoeuvre just slightly wrong – just slightly enough to make us completely doomed – they all screamed for about an hour and then they dozed off. I can't sleep. I can't get comfortable in sleeping bags because they're always too small for me. Plus I think if I stay awake I might have an idea. And save us all. That's why I'm recording this on my Draxphone. If I do get home, I'm going to give it to you and then you'll understand how I ended up in deep space when I said I was going pond dipping in the Lake District.

Liam is only twelve, but his growth spurt hit early. Now taller than most adults and sporting a new batch of stubble, he's mistaken for the new teacher on his first day of grade 7 at a new school. That lasted only so long as it took him to try to incite a walk-out, but it's only the first time he's mistaken as an adult. Since he looks about thirty, Liam and his classmate Florida have great fun doing things that kids can only do with adult supervision - until his dad, a taxi driver, catches him about to test drive a Porsche. Frank was asked by the Fleming Estate to write the official sequel to Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2012. The only bad thing about the view is that it doesn't include Earth. We haven't seen it since we rolled out of orbit. I said to the others, "Well, it must be somewhere. We're probably just facing the wrong way. We'll find it. Definitely." But that didn't seem to calm them down. One of them – Samson Two – drew me a diagram to prove that even if we were facing the wrong way we should still be able to see it. I said, "So what are you saying? That we've fallen into some magic wormhole and come out on the other side of the universe?"Frank Cottrell Boyce is better known as the author of Millions, which was made into a movie. I haven't seen it, or read the book. Other reviewers have said it's a better book than Cosmic - considering how much I enjoyed this, perhaps I should read Millions too. Cosmic is an utterly delightful read - and I've been waiting for ages to say that about a book! This book follows the story of a 12-year-old boy, Liam, who is often mistaken for an adult due to his height and facial hair. In the beginning, there is some explanation of the adventures this has led to (and the often disastrous outcomes), as he dwells on the time he had taken a Porsche on a test drive with his ‘daughter’ Florida (who is actually a friend from school). The majority of the book, however, is dedicated to their time in space, orbiting the moon in a shuttle that closely resembles an ice-cream bus. Cosmic has a theme of World of Warcraft throughout. Liam often talks about the game to explain his motivations and logic. I think it's a wonderful mechanism to get an insight into his mind. A slightly awkward boy, and socially somewhat stilted, Liam's application of gaming logic to real-life situations is totally believable. So I turned the key in the ignition. The car made a sound like a cat purring. The man stepped aside and pointed to the bonnet. 'Engineering perfection.' He smiled."It is at the moment, I thought. But in five minutes' time it might well be a load of scrap metal. The thing about Level Two of course is that it has new and unexpected dangers. So you stand a much better chance of being killed. What do you know about space? Can you name any planets, moons, stars or galaxies in our solar system?

And he repeatedly sets up the punch line: "'But...well, you should have more sense, a big lad like you.'"

Explore our most popular collections

You can find out a bit more about him and his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang triology at uk.chittyfliesagain.com There are a number of elements that Frank Cottrell Boyce deftly combines to make COSMIC one of the funniest books I've read this year: More than that, Cosmic is also a muse on what it means to be a grown-up, as well as a dad, so I can easily see why industry magazines are showering it with stars. While I think it's authentically written in the voice of a 12-year-old boy, I'm neither twelve nor a boy, so I'd be interested in what middle school kids think of this book too.

And did I mention that author Frank Cottrell Boyce lives in England? I was smitten with the British vocabulary sprinkled throughout. In fact, I frequently found myself reading with a mental British accent, and a big smile on my face, because seriously... doesn't a British accent make everything just a little bit better?It's one giant leap for all boy-kind in Frank Cottrell Boyce's out-of-this-world story: Cosmic. Liam is too big for his boots. And his football strip. And his school blazer. But being super-sized height-wise has its advantages: he's the only eleven-year-old to ever ride the G-force-defying Cosmic rollercoaster - or to be offered the chance to drive a Porsche. Long-legged Liam makes a giant leap for boy-kind by competing with a group of adults for the chance to go into space. Is Liam the best boy for the job? Sometimes being big isn't all about being a grown-up. A few years ago I fell hard for Millions, Frank Cotrell Boyce’s first book for children. The outlandish situation (two boys feverishly spending large amounts of money), the characterizations (particularly of the two boys and their father), the subtle handling of the big emotional and theological themes (of grief and faith), the laugh-out-loud humorous moments (my favorite being the playground economy), and the remarkable voice of narrator Damian (the younger of the two boys) made it a memorable novel for me as well as for my students when I read it aloud to them. Boyce’s next novel, Framed, did not win me over the same way. Fortunately, he has gone one better with his newest book, Cosmic.* He has also created a fantastic trilogy, writtenwith his trademark wit, warmth and sense of story, based upon Ian Fleming's novel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, comprising Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon.