The first six pages
Zara, Captain of the Cosmos is a 16-page comic book picture book. Here is how it opens.
The cover. Zara, Captain of the Cosmos, starring Zara, 9, and Ziggy the bearded dragon.
Page 3. In the golden hush before supper, Zara gathered cardboard boxes, tape, and a dream. She loved the night sky more than anything, and tonight she was building a rocket brave enough to reach it. Her best friend Ziggy, a sandy bearded dragon, watched from the grass, tail curled, ready for adventure. "Almost done," she whispered, smoothing the last flap into place.
Page 4. Zara pressed a paper star patch onto the rocket's side and stepped back to admire it. "She's ready, Ziggy," she said. Ziggy puffed his beard, as if agreeing completely. The sky above turned peach and lavender, the first stars blinking awake. Zara climbed inside, patted the seat beside her, and Ziggy hopped up, brave as ever, eyes shining with excitement.
Page 5. Just as the last light faded, the rocket shivered. It rumbled low, then louder, like a hundred drums waking up. Zara gripped the controls—a steering wheel, a flashlight, an old bicycle horn—and grinned. "Hold on, Ziggy!" The cardboard walls glowed faintly silver, and the whole backyard hummed with magic, ready to lift Zara and her co-pilot into the night.
Page 6. With a whoosh and a wobble, the rocket lifted off the grass. Up, up it climbed, past the chimney, past the clouds, past the sleepy birds heading home. Zara laughed as the wind rushed by, and Ziggy pressed his nose to the little window, watching Earth shrink into a blue marble below them, bright and small.
Page 7. They sailed past the Moon, round and silver and smiling, it seemed, just for them. "Hello, Moon," Zara called out the window. Craters dotted its surface like dimples. Ziggy pressed close, his tail curling tight with wonder. Zara steered gently, feeling braver with every passing star, proud of the rocket she had built with her own two hands.
