• Age: 11 to 13
• Grade: 6 to 8
• Reading age: 11 to 13

High school is rough, and making friends is hard enough without also being an interplanetary refugee. Maida Kilwa was born on Mars. Life was peaceful and happy until invaders from the twin moons Phobos and Deimos attacked her homeworld. She lost her dad, and her cousin, and her brother was kidnapped. At a young age she was compelled to flee to Earth with her aunt in search of a better life. On Earth she found a society rigidly divided by class, gender, and religion, where Martians are “fugees” and must survive on the charity of others. Maida does her best to fit in and find a clique of allies at school. She also discovers a group of young, self-proclaimed revolutionaries who aren’t satisfied with Earth’s status quo and plan to do something about it. A crisis is coming and change is on the wind.

J Dalton has drawn two previous graphic novels, a Mesoamerican fantasy story called Lords of Death and Life, and A Mad Tea-Party, a science fiction drama. He has contributed to anthologies such as FTL, Y'All, Tamamo the Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories, and Failure to Launch. He wrote Phobos and Deimos after teaching in East London for a year and thinking a lot about class and migration. He teaches elementary school in Canada now, and wonders what it would be like to go to space, but only if a bunch of other people did it first.

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