Laika

 

                                                                                                                                    15 January, 2025

Dear Readers,

             Recently, I read an amazing action book, Laika, which is truly an inspiring and outstanding story. Laika by Nick Abadzis is about a street dog who is chosen to be the first animal to orbit the earth. Unfortunately, Laika the dog is stopped in her tracks when the spacecraft, Sputnik 2 overheats and then soon disintegrates along with Laika’s remains. This shows that the dog, Laika, unfortunately died alone. From this, I have written a review based on the themes, how Abadzis wrote Laika to intrigue readers, climax, and the type of audience which are present in Laika. To sum this up, Laika is an inspirational adventure book with an amazing climax which I would definitely recommend.

In the book, Laika, Abadzis uses loneliness, inspiration, and adventure as the main themes. To explain this further, Abadzis uses a more depressed emotion while also including action and inspiration in his books which forces the reader to read on and wonder what happens next. Also, he uses action, inspiration and sadness as a theme in some of his most popular books. Some of these books that Abadzis wrote include: The Dog in Outer Space, Doctor Who, and even Pigs Might Fly. As I saw and read these books online, I noticed that each one either was an emotional action book or truly an inspiring book. These themes are present in Laika because when she died as a hero, she also died alone while not even on the same planet. In conclusion to this, Laika by Nick Abadzis includes many themes which include action, inspiration, and even loneliness.

The book, Laika,teaches every audience that living organisms can survive in outer space which can inspire a younger audience. Ultimately, this means that anything is possible as long as you set your mind to it. So personally, if I were to recommend this book, I would without a doubt recommend it to children considering the fact that the lesson in this book is taught in a way that is suitable and understandable for kids. I say this as a kid myself, there weren't many characters, just Laika and sometimes characters confuse kids easily but in Laika, it wasn’t confusing. Because this book was inspiring to me, I would rate it an eight out of ten and would recommend this book to a younger audience. So, in conclusion,  Laika is an action book that is inspiring to a smaller audience.

The plot of Laika is different from other books because of the climax which causes an innocent street dog to unfortunately perish. A method in this book, Freytag’s Pyramid, is an outline of how books are normally written, was different in this book. I say this because normally the hero of the book doesn't die. On page 67, Abadzis quotes, “Her vitals have spiked by almost double sir! The spacecraft is overheating, she won’t return!”. This line explains how heroes don’t always stay alive but they can accomplish and inspire anything. In Laika, the climax was when Sputnik 2 overheated and when Laika’s vitals spiked. To conclude this, every book is unique but the story of Laika is truly different from other books because of the climax and resolution it has.

As this book was a short graphic novel, Abadzis introduced Laika the dog slowly in the beginning but fast as an explosion in the end, literally. In fact as I was reading this, Laika didn’t start in the spaceship which blew up, she started on the streets as a street dog. Abadzis introduces Laika as a friendly dog whom everyone loved and cared for. She randomly gets selected for an experiment one day and gets transported immediately to the Russian space program. This is when the rising action which is toward the end of the book in Laika takes place. As Laika gets sent to space and orbits once successfully around the earth but then disintegrates, this is when Abadzis combines the climax and falling action. The resolution in this book we notice is in the last pages when Abadzis explains how the memorials were created. So in conclusion, Abadzis takes his time to have the readers get to truly know the main character but then in an instant, the main character perishes.

In the end, I loved this book and as I would recommend it to a younger audience, it is for anyone who is interested in an uniquely themed book. By explaining and exploring the plot, themes, climax, and even how Abadzis wrote Laika, I really hope that this book will be your next read. 

Yours truly,

Teigan Heller