Muth, a long-standing fan of Lem's sf stories, here offers a lushly illustrated adaptation of one of the Polish author's many Ijon Tichy adventures. Tichy, alone on his ship, is trying to repair a broken rudder, but a design flaw means he can't do it himself. He's hurtling through space with little control, so what's he to do? A somewhat fortuitous trip through a field of gravitational vortices presents a solution, albeit a very complicated one: as time folds over on itself, new versions of Tichy appear, though he's not as cooperative as he hoped he might be. Muth's atmospheric watercolor artwork gives an astounding sense of space. Vast expanses of darkness dotted with pale stars are the backdrops for Tichy's retro, tin-can-like spaceship, and Tichy himself, rendered in aqueous watercolors, has a charmingly limber look, which becomes increasingly comical as more and more Tichys appear at various ages. While this is a bit more sophisticated than the usual middle-grade graphic novel, space-mad kids who love arguing about the paradoxes of time travel will likely be wholly on board.

Delicately washed panel artwork by Caldecott Honoree Muth (Zen Shorts) underscores the hilarity of late Polish author Lem-s short story, originally published in 1957. Unable to repair his spaceship-s rudder alone, astronaut Ijon Tichy enjoys a -modest supper,- works some calculations, and heads to bed. (Readers will note with amusement the spacecraft-s cozy domestic fixtures: striped pajamas and pink oven mitts, an overstuffed armchair and fully equipped kitchen.) He-s awakened by another astronaut (-We-re going out and screwing on the rudder bolts-), but as there is no other astronaut-Tichy is the only one aboard-he dismisses the second as a phantom. Slowly the situation becomes clear: Tichy has entered a time loop, and the other astronaut is Tichy himself, as he exists 24 hours in the future. Lem follows the idea into absurdity as the Tichys multiply (-I saw my Monday self staring at me... while Tuesday me fried an omelet-), then descend into slapstick chaos, beginning to -quarrel, argue, bicker, and debate.- Though the multiple iterations may feel chaotic for some, Kandel-s translation and Muth-s art imbue the original with a crystalline, humorous clarity and delight. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)