FROONGA PLANET

Last summer, after Nate Parker’s basset hound Lunchbox was mentally enhanced by Scwozzwortian aliens Frazz and Grunflozz, he made a machine that created Froonga (Scwozzwortian food) from garbage. Turns out Froonga is great dog food too, and Nate’s parents are selling it as Parker’s Power Pooch Pellets. When Nate’s parents leave him in the clueless care of Aunt Nelly, world’s worst baker, while they go to a dog-food convention, Nate and Lunchbox have another really close encounter: Evil Commander Narzargle and a fleet of Hoofonoggles want to take over the Earth. It’s up to the still super-smart Lunchbox, Nate, bumbling Frazz and sarcastic Grunflozz to save the world and broker the first interstellar trade agreement. Fields’s second Lunchbox adventure is as silly and fun to read as the first, and Atteberry’s occasional pencil illustrations add their share of giggles. Reluctant readers with a willing suspension of disbelief and a penchant for science fiction will be happy to find this one. (Science fiction. 9-12)