Supa Nova

Wr. & Ill. Chanté Timothy

Pub. Nosy Crow

Age Range - 7+

When Nova invents a plastic-eating monster, she thinks she’s solved the world’s pollution problem. But she doesn’t expect her monster to start rampaging through the city! Can Nova find a way to save the day? It will take a genius to figure it out!

"It's alive!"

(I just absolutely 100% need a poster of the "I'm Alive" double page spread for my classroom wall! Someone make this happen!)

Ever since entering teaching, I've championed girls in STEM. It's why I have a framed portrait of Ada Lovelace on my classroom wall, a Computer Engineer Barbie display, and a full set of Linda Liukas's Hello Ruby books available for the children to read. The Ruby books introduce programming concepts in a manner accessible to even very young children. I adore Linda Liukas, she's just brilliant. Ruby’s superpower is that she can ‘imagine impossible things’, and her favourite word is ‘why?’. But quite honestly, female STEM protagonists are few and far between in children's literature. Enter Nova!

---

A quick side note here: Computer Engineer Barbie was an absolute travesty. The doll was inoffensive enough, with geometric glasses, a Bluetooth headset and a binary code t-shirt. The doll was pretty cool, to be fair. The accompanying book, however, was a disaster. It saw Barbie working on designs for a video game rather than actually coding it (for that, she proclaimed, she’d need a boy’s help). The book was unceremoniously pulled from the shelves a while later, never to be seen again. Hopefully that was the only time it was pulled from a bookshelf. I make sure every child who comes through my classroom knows that Computer Science is for them. My Barbie display serves as a permanent prompt for children to remember that message.

---

Nova is the star (geddit?) of a new series of graphic novels by Chanté Timothy. Like her parents, Nova is a scientist. A genius, really. She's plucky and spontaeous, noble and a little bit reckless - everything a hero (and a rolemodel) should be. Think Flint Lockwood in Cloudy...with a Chance of Meatballs meets Violet Parma from the Eeerie-on-Sea series and Lotta from the Unadoptables, and you're most of the way there. Just a fun, credible little girl with a big brain and a bigger heart.

The book put me in mind of Little Miss Inventor, herself somewhat of a rareity in the Mr Men/Little Miss universe, where role models for young girls are about as frequently salubrious (Little Misses Brilliant and Brainy) as they are plain dubious (Little Misses Bossy and Princess). There is a fun reference to Frankenstein, and the escapade with Chomp (I won't spoil it here) put me in mind of an old Garfield cartoon. There's also a throwaway reference to a teleporter that Nova's parents invented: just there in the house like it's no biggy 😂!

The whole thing is beautifully and vividly brought to life through gorgeous artwork, and it's an absolute blast from start to end. There's a lot going on in this little beauty: strong representation, female STEM ambassadorship, and an eco-conscious slant that will no doubt spark discussions around marine conservation and plastic pollution. Never let anyone tell you children's literature means you have to dumb down. This is why Nosy Crow is my favourite publisher. To be able to champion a new STEM rolemodel is a thrill for me, as I'm sure it will be to many other teachers, and I look forward to promoting this book at school.