Junior Fights Fear in Outer Space in Lost in Place

I’ve long been a fan of both Star Trek and Swiss Family Robinson, so it’s surprising to me that up until this week, I had never watched Lost in Space, the 1960s show about a futuristic Robinson family who have intergalactic adventures far from Earth. I finally decided to rectify that after reading Lost in Place, a picture book in the VeggieTown Values series. Written by Cindy Kenney and illustrated by Michael Moore, this story incorporates several popular characters from the VeggieTales series and uses them to illustrate a lesson about not being crippled by fear, which was also the subject of the very first Veggie video.

In this book, Junior Asparagus is playing hide and seek with his friend Laura Carrot. He hides a little too well, and she gives up on finding him, leaving him to finally emerge when it’s dark. Alone and afraid, he sees monsters in the shadows and is on the verge of full-blown panic when his parents manage to track him down. He is safe, but the experienced has so traumatized him that he no longer wants to leave the house. However, he consents to a trip to the bookstore with his parents so he can pick out something to occupy his interest for the afternoon.

Treasure Trove Bookstore is run by an Irish potato named Mr. O’Malley who has a knack for knowing exactly which book is needed for each situation. For Junior, he selects the saga of a family traveling through space unsure of how to reach their destination. As with the other books in this series, Junior is transported to the story, interacting with the characters and helping them to solve their problem.

The pictures have a flatter quality to them than the animation in a typical Veggie video, but the colors are vibrant and the nods to the series are creative. Larry the Cucumber is Don Quest, the enthusiastic pilot, while the Grape family, led by Pa Grape, is the Rattleson family, whose children share names with their Lost in Space counterparts, Judy, Will and Penny.

Accompanying them is a robot with a fish tank for a head and Dr. Smirk, a gourd with a very shifty look about him. I was unaware of the character of Dr. Smith on the show, so watching it helped me understand the inspiration for this character. Initially I wondered if he might be an homage to Spock, but sticking a Star Trek character in the middle of a Lost in Space spoof seemed a little out of place, and his personality isn’t very Spock-like.

As with the rest of the books in this series, Lost in Place is best appreciated by those familiar with the source material. Additionally, its plot isn’t quite as strong as the others in the series. Once Junior finds his own courage and convinces his new friends not to be afraid, they stop panicking, and everyone starts to think more clearly, which allows them to figure out what went wrong in the first place and formulate a plan for setting things right. It works, especially since it turns out their wayward journey started with a fearful action, but the connection might not be all that apparent at first.

Nonetheless, for Veggie lovers who are happy to let their geek flags fly, Lost in Place is a fun story with an encouraging message.