Il-Professur Għasfur fl-Ispazju

 

Following the selling out of the first edition and reprinting of Ġorġ Mallia’s Il-Professur Għasfur, Merlin Publishers have just published Il-Professur Għasfur fl-Ispazju.

 

The first book is narrated by Katrina, a resourceful girl who saves the day after she, the Professor and his tortoise, traverse across some weird and dangerous dimensions on the inventor’s trans-dimensional platform. The second book is narrated by Katrina’s friend, Pawlu, who is not tremendously good at school work, but loves science fiction, and particularly spaceships. So when he sees a spaceship hovering over the Professor’s farmhouse/laboratory, he tries to find out what’s happening. Which leads to an amazing adventure in space, when the tortoise picks up signals of a gigantic alien ship heading towards earth to destroy it.

 

The Professor is now joined by another Professor, il-Professur Gremxula. She is an expert in biology and anthropology, and is seminal to the group’s understanding of the nature of the aliens who are hell-bent on destroying our world.

 

Among other reasons for the introduction of Professor Gremxula in the book is the research published a few years ago that found that in all children’s books published the percentage of female, as opposed to male scientists, is quite small. And the book already had Professor Għasfur, who needed a brilliant counterpart. It also compensates somewhat for the lack of the female narrator this time around.

 

In fact, Professor Gremxula plays a seminal part in the group’s attempts to stop the aliens from destroying our planet.

 

Do they succeed? That is something for children (especially those aged 9 to 14) reading this book to find out.

 

The book cover (designed by Pierre Portelli, incorporating illustrations by Ġorġ Mallia), and two of the internal illustrations are being sampled here.

 

Ġorġ Mallia also wrote a guest blog about the book, published HERE on Merlin Publishers' website.

 

© Ġorġ Mallia 2022