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INTERPLANETARY AVENGER by Caroline Luzatto

INTERPLANETARY AVENGER

by Caroline Luzatto

Pub Date: Oct. 15th, 2005
ISBN: 0-8234-1933-9
Publisher: Holiday House

Luzzatto cranks up the gross-o-meter for this tale of a resourceful fifth-grader who inadvertently sets a malicious alien shapechanger free on Earth. Sam comes home from school one day to find a box in his driveway, with a small tab and a “Do Not Open” sign. Who could resist? But suddenly he’s in the Principal’s office on another planet, being informed that, as he’s just sprung chronic ne’er-do-well Exeter Lar Junderpanz, a Buterian mutant from Detention, it’s up to him to rectify the situation. Sam returns to Earth to discover that Exeter has become his body double, taken up such revolting habits as picking his nose in public and brushing with zit cream, and worst of all, dedicated himself to making Sam miserable. The author plays out the comic possibilities expertly, tossing in a bully, a very adolescent big brother and school politics to complicate Sam’s life even further. He slips him an unexpected ally, too, and winds up the chase to a climactic face-off in (where else?) the Boys Locker Room. A champion candidate for reading aloud (good luck keeping a straight face), this zany escapade will leave young readers drooling for sequels. (Science fiction. 9-11)