How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth

December 1, 2018

Gr 3-5-Happy Conklin Jr., aka Hap, is back again in the next installment of Noth's wacky, other-dimensional, family adventure. He's still the only sixth grader who has to shave several times a day to avoid looking like "Rip Van Winkle," the result of one of his father's experiments. This time around, he's trying to find the courage to ask a girl, Nev, to be his lab partner in science class. Squeep!, the lizard full of mysterious messages, is trying to help but keeps disappearing into another dimension through the "Doorganizer." With the help of his good sister, Kayla, and the interference of his evil sister, Alice, Hap inadvertently ends up ripping open a black hole which threatens to swallow up planet Earth. The plot, which is full of twists and turns yet still tends to drag, culminates in a cliffhanger involving Hap's power-hungry, evil Grandma making an appearance. Hap is the ultimate hapless underdog but readers may not care enough to be rooting for him. The nearly all-white cast of characters and the implausible, at times nonsensical, plot twists may alienate many readers. This one is also peppered with Noah's drawings and panels. This is not a standalone read. VERDICT A confusing, not terribly interesting sequel. Purchase only where the first in the series is very popular.-Megan Kilgallen, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2018
Stories are not democratic. Not everybody gets to be the main character.The hero of this science-fiction novel is an 11-year-old boy named Happy Conklin Jr., and if it had been anybody else, the story wouldn't have worked. His little sister, Kayla, would have defeated the alien menace in about 10 minutes. As her brother describes her, she "knows everything," and she's a master at using "footwork and body language" to keep an opponent off balance. She can also see the future due to events in series opener How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens (2018). Happy's older sister, Alice, would be an even worse protagonist, because her main interests are stealing things and threatening people who get in her way. Happy is just awkward enough to be an underdog: tongue-tied and anxious. His haplessness also allows for some good jokes. A cartoon segment in which he takes 16 panels to respond to a cute girl's comment shows Noth's mastery of comic timing. But it's all the characters, in combination, who make the book worth reading. Even the cute girl is distinctive and appealing, though--as the cute girl--she's a little dull. All the characters, however--even those not related by blood--seem to be white. The plot feels a bit fragmentary (it ends on an abrupt cliffhanger), but plot's hardly the point here.It's hard not to like a story where everyone deserves to be the main character. (Humorous science fiction. 7-12)

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November 15, 2018
Grades 4-6 The prospect of a black hole swallowing Earth pitches a middle-schooler into a round of frantic antics involving teleporting lizards, hostile Galactics, the FBI, several sisters with unusual powers and abilities, and a certain locket-shaped portal to extra-dimensional space-time thought destroyed in the previous episode, How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens (2018). Happy Conklin, Jr., is used to challenges?he's not even a teenager yet and he already has to cope with the necessity of shaving three times a day, thanks to an experiment of his inventor dad's?but even with the help of his sister Kayla, who can see into various futures, keeping both the locket and his strangely gifted lizard, Squeep!, out of the clutches of his mega- and kleptomaniacal sister Alice, not to mention saving the planet, is a tall order. Noth, a New Yorker cartoonist, strews Happy's nonstop narrative with droll ink-and-wash vignettes on the way to a climactic twist. Familiarity with the opener will give readers a better feel for the characters and overall arc of this wonderfully goofy sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)