The fine publishers at Smart Pop have graciously sent me copies of Star Trek: My First Book of Space and Star Trek: My First Book of Colors, both of which are “board books”, aimed at readers that are just getting out of the “eat the book” phase of their education and are moving into the “look at the book” phase. Both are beautifully illustrated by Jason Kayser, with Colors being 100% hand illustrated and Space being a hybrid of official NASA photography with Trek art elements added. There’s maybe only about 100 words between the two books, but within that limited word count are some extremely deep cuts, including references to coffee nebulas, shoeless Gorn, and Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. If you’re an advanced Trek reader, these aren’t going to blow you away, but if you’re an advanced Trek reader, you’re not the target audience, are you? Author Robb Pearlman certainly makes the effort for you though, with a series of color declarations that are both informative and poetical.
There’s long been a huge disparity between Star Wars and Star Trek with how they focus on their target demographics, with Trek not having much in the way of beginner reader materials or even young adult content, usually aiming more for the adult market. Don’t believe me? In just the last year Star Wars has had at least 10 different children / YA novels in just the High Republic storyline. There’s hundreds of other books aimed at younger audiences over the last 40 years of publishing for that franchise, and as much as I love space wizards with delusions of grandeur, I still prefer Trek with all of it’s slightly more down to Earth storylines and character. Something you’ll not catch Star Wars doing is having an actual astrophysicist, Erin Macdonald, PhD, writing books that lay the groundwork for a lifetime of STEM appreciation with a veneer of Star Trek coating it.
