FAMILY VACATION

The Bright family ventures through portals and visits other planets, learning important lessons along the way.

Readers are dropped immediately into the action as Banira Suzuki-Bright and Benjamin Bright and their kids, Nia and Jayden Bright, wrap up “a simple containment and closure operation.” Thanks to their help, sea serpents that had been wreaking havoc on a resort on the Moon of Grabar are now back on their own side of the portal. A grateful resort manager offers the family a free vacation, which ends up becoming an opportunity for Benjamin to repair his rocky relationship with his dad, Grandpa Winston. Another episode sees Banira taking the kids with her to the Transdimensional and Intergalactic Science and Goodwill Summit. Nia and Jayden befriend the kids of two rival aliens and avert conflict by demonstrating that “it’s a lot easier to get along than it is to hold a grudge.” In an additional short story, “One Birthday in Time,” Benjamin goes back in time to remind himself to pick up Jayden’s birthday cake. With superbright colors and no more than five panels per page, the action is absorbing and simple to follow, and both alien and human characters are unique and easy to identify. Dad, Grandpa Winston, and the kids present Black, Banira is cued Japanese.

Out-of-this-world fun.