BLAST OFF!

An extraterrestrial travels by rocket ship through a psychedelic universe.

The space creature, who wears a helmet through most of the book, enjoys a snack, marvels at a shooting star, and passes by a colorful array of planets. When this voyager arrives at what looks to be a space station, the text reads: “Where is everyone?” The page turn reveals a wild assortment of space creatures welcoming home the protagonist, who has now removed the helmet to show green skin, an orange nose, and bugle-shaped ears. Minimal text of one or two sentences per page captions each double-page scene. As with other titles in the Fluorescent Pop! series, the art is a dizzying explosion of color with Day-Glo oranges, intense yellows, radioactive greens, and hot pinks. While the planets and the shooting star are invitingly illustrated, the rocket's control room has so much going on with buttons, dials, screens, cords, and even a floating slice of pizza it proves a difficult image to read. A companion book, The Sweetest Treats, features more of the same brightly hued illustration style to catalog a variety of sugar-sweet treats. Those readers not concerned about the calorie count and the use of artificial coloring in these goodies may still find lime-green ice cream and fuchsia cupcakes less than appetizing.

Fluorescent outer space? The series continues to be a color scheme in search of an appropriate subject.