Nearly three years later, the fallout fromJeff Bezos’ 11-minute trip to spacecontinues. Little did we know, whenBezosboarded his phallic rocket and blasted himself off of Earth’s surface, he was also marking a watershed moment in hisalive girl’screative process. And now, Bezos’ fiancée,Lauren Sánchez,is publishing a book about a bug who goes to space.
Sánchez, whofirst announced her bookin early 2023, revealed the cover this week and offered some insight into how this publication came to be. “I’ve had this idea for a long time,” she toldPeople,the idea being a children’s book about a fly traveling in an airborne vehicle. Originally, she says, she wanted to pen a story about a fly trapped in a helicopter, inspired by that one time when she was getting her piloting license and she saw a fly in a helicopter. She described her reaction as such: “Oh, look at this little fly… who’sflying.’” She also thought,Wouldn’t this be a great children’s book?
But, as is wont to happen when you date a spacebound billionaire, Sánchez realized a few years later that, like her boyfriend, the fictional bug in her head should soar beyond the confines of Earth’s exosphere. “When Jeff went into space,” she recalled, “I was like, ‘This fly needs to go intospace.’”
The result is an illustrated saga that follows Flynn, a fly and aspiring astronaut, on his accidental journey into space, where he learns about Earth and the perils of climate change.(Whether or not thesignificant carbon footprint of space travelis part of his educational journey remains to be seen.) Per Sánchez, “There’s also STEM, and there’s geography, and another theme is inclusion.” Sounds like an Amazon best seller to me.