Space Dogs

It all begins with Laika, the first dog in space. Launched into orbit by the Soviet Union, Laika’s craft is accidentally sucked through a wormhole and onto the Planet Gersbach, inhabited by highly intelligent but very tiny people.
When a mysterious disturbance of gravity (D.O.G.) threatens to destroy Gersbach, Commanders Belka and Strelka are just the men to seek and destroy the source of D.O.G. Their vehicle: A highly sophisticated craft that looks exactly like a terrier. Blending in with the locals on earth should be no problem.
And with the help of the Buckleys, a lovable Earth family with problems of their own, the mission to save their planet may still prevail.

Grade 5-8–This off-the-wall science-fiction comedy verges on the absurd. In 1957, a spaceship launched by the Soviet Union contained Laika, the first dog in space. It entered a wormhole and crashed on the alien planet Gersbach. Forty-nine years later, Gersbach is in danger of breaking apart due to an invisible force called a Disturbance of Gravity (D.O.G.) that's flowing from the wormhole and creating planetary seismic tremors. Two of Gersbach's best Galactanauts, doll-sized Belka Sparkleman and Strelka Funkmaster, are chosen to head a space mission through the wormhole back to Earth to find and destroy the source of the D.O.G. They assume that all of Earth's inhabitants are dogs like Laika so they travel in an aircraft that resembles a terrier. Escaped prisoner Colonel Bars, his squad of fighting fleas, and Flanger Damka, his beautiful female accomplice, have stolen another Gersbachian aircraft in the shape of a dachshund and are determined to find the D.O.G. for themselves. Both rival teams land in Australia and are adopted by the angst-ridden Buckley family, including Lucy, 11, and Amy, 14. In the course of their mission, the Gersbachians have outrageous encounters with a garden gnome, feral cats, sheep, cockroaches, cockatoos, and a Russian rocket scientist. This novel has too many subplots, simplistic writing, and a frantic pace, but middle school readers with a penchant for silly-sounding names and bad puns will have a blast.–Sharon Rawlins, NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped, Trenton
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Gr. 4-7. A series of mishaps have required the Buckleys to move from the country to the city. Beth and Tom Buckley are doing what they can to make ends meet, while their daughters, Amy and Lucy, try to adjust to city life but find fitting in with their schoolmates a challenge. The realistic family story crashes head-on into quirky sf when the sisters discover that the two apparently stray mutts in their neighborhood are really dog-shaped vehicles from outer space. Both are occupied by tiny Gersbachians, extraterrestrials who have traveled through a wormhole seeking the Disturbance of Gravity (D.O.G.) that is destroying their home planet. As the mechanical canines converge upon the source of the disturbance, the Buckleys' front yard becomes ground zero in a battle between two mission commanders with very different aims. Offering witty glimpses of both human and alien perspectives, this is an action-packed, cleverly plotted, exuberantly silly story that will delight imaginative middle-graders, particularly those who enjoy tongue-in-cheek sf such as Terry Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind (2005). Holly Koelling
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