November 15, 2017
Kelvin Klosmo has to learn to dance, get the girl, and make a new name for himself (Larva Boy, Drifting Dufus, and Under-a-Minute Moron have got to go). But he still needs to find time to save the universe (again).Life on a space station 329 quadrillion miles from Earth sounds exciting, but for Kelvin, it is mostly terrifying, humiliating, and downright irritating. Because even if one of your friends lives in a fishbowl, another has three pairs of eyes, and yet another has a giant brain that shrinks when he is overwhelmed, it turns out junior high school is pretty much the same wherever you go. Shrink rays, giant robots, and disco-dancing parents are just part of a normal day on the space station. But when Kelvin's father reveals that he is storing a superweapon in his lab, only Kelvin and his friends see the potential for disaster. Corny jokes, wacky high jinks, a supervillain bunny, and engaging illustrations keep the pages turning, while Kelvin's upbeat attitude in the face of mortification, mayhem, and mystery meat are endearing. Diversity is limited to the extraterrestrial variety. Martin and Seegert's frequent spot illustrations and comic-strip panels serve up such audience favorites as a farting, tentacled alien, another whose grin is held in place by orthodontic headgear, and a principal who is a giant slug.Wacky out-of-this-world fun. (Graphic/science fiction hybrid. 8-12)
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July 1, 2018
Kelvin Klosmo, the non-genius son of genius scientists, returns for his second adventure on a space station. Kelvin and his extraterrestrial friends are again charged with saving the universe without getting any credit for it. Flat characters are offset by nonstop action and humor; cartoon illustrations appear on nearly every page, and a variety of fonts and thumbnail drawings designate who is speaking.
(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)