George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt

Name: George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt
Author: Lucy and Stephen Hawking

by Lucy and Stephen Hawking

Ages 8–11 Reading age 9 Novel Set in space adventurousthoughtful

A message arrives from space and George joins a mission to find life on other worlds, with the computer Cosmos out of action.

A story about children and a grown-up hero, adventurous and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.

Worth knowing before you buy

Mild peril

None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.

Our take on this book

A message from deep space draws George and his friend Annie into a mission to hunt for life on other worlds, with the added complication that Cosmos, the most powerful computer ever built, is broken and their journey across the solar system is anything but safe. Lucy and Stephen Hawking's series threads real astrophysics through a genuine adventure story: alongside the peril and the chases, there are full-colour fact pages and beautiful photographs, so a child absorbs how the solar system actually works while racing through the plot. The science is accurate — Professor Hawking's involvement guarantees it — but never lectured, and the mild peril keeps the pages turning. For an eight- to eleven-year-old who is curious about space, it is close to ideal: a proper story for the imagination and a real education folded into the same book, likely to leave a reader hungry for more of both the series and the science.