Dude, Where's My Spaceship

April 3, 2006
Greenburg's (the Secrets of Dripping Fang series) silly story about a trio of aliens who crash their spaceship into earth launches the Weird Planet series, but never quite lifts off. After Ploo and her older brothers land in the Nevada desert, they use a "hide-a-craft" device to make their spacecraft disappear just as two men drive up and cart Ploo away to a nearby army base. Her siblings then morph into humans and chew gumballs that enable them to speak English. Stealing a pizza delivery car, they manage to talk their way onto the base, but when they arrive at the building where Ploo is allegedly being held, they find it empty. Lily, daughter of Major Paine, who's in charge of the base, sets her free, and the two become fast friends ("They giggled till they ached. They giggled till they could hardly breathe"). The tale ends with the reunited siblings driving off in a stolen car, headed to Las Vegas in search of the woman who can reportedly fix their damaged spacecraft, the setting for their next adventure, Lost in Las Vegas
(ISBN 0-375-93345-X), also due the same month. As the aliens try to make sense of English words and human objects, the plot will elicit occasional chuckles, but it lacks the spark and humor to propel most readers to move on to the aliens' next escapade. Ages 7-10.

March 1, 2006
Gr 2-3 -Fans of the author -s -Zack Files - series (Grosset & Dunlap) will be delighted with this fast-paced science-fiction adventure that -s full of goofy humor. Klatu and his brother and sister have mistakenly crashed their spaceship into the Nevada desert. Hilarious dialogue among the space aliens and the humans they meet follows as Ploo is captured and taken to an army base for study. Klatu and Lek use all the tricks at their disposal to retrieve her, including morphing into human form and chewing English-language gum to communicate with the earthlings. Ploo is rescued by a human girl who proves herself less prejudiced than her adult counterparts. The text is peppered with funny, easily -translated - alien vocabulary, and the large print and short declarative sentences will be accessible to emerging readers. The book even sneaks in an antismoking message and a short history lesson. Readers will not be able to resist these appealing googly-eyed extraterrestrials with distinct personalities, and the gentle subliminal message that being different is not necessarily bad or scary is welcome. This is a perfect book for those who are beyond easy readers but not yet ready for intermediate fiction." -Quinby Frank, formerly at Green Hedges School, Vienna, VA"

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