Akiko on the Planet Smoo

Mark Crilley

ISBN 10: 1435227999 ISBN 13: 9781435227996

Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-03-01, 2008

Synopsis

When this fourth-grader comes home from school one day, she finds an envelope waiting for her with no stamp and no return address. The message inside reads Dear Akiko: We are coming to get you. Meet us outside your bedroom window tonight at 8:00. Don't forget your toothbrush. How could anyone meet her outside her window? She lives on the 17th floor, for goodness sake. But that evening, as Akiko is preparing to study for tomorrow's geography test, she finds a small spacecraft hovering outside her window with two odd little men inside. They have been sent to whisk Akiko off to the Planet Smoo where she will lead a team enlisted to find the King of Smoo's kidnapped son, Prince Froptoppit. Akiko, the leader of a rescue mission? She's too timid to be on the school's safety patrol! So begins Akiko's adventure across the land of Smoo to find a prince and become a leader.

About this title

Review:

Akiko on the Planet Smoo was first created as a comic book and teaching tool, but with plenty of spit and polish, Mark Crilley's flights of fancy have been transformed into a light, illustrated adventure novel in the topsy-turvy tradition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Ten-year-old Akiko is embroiled in typical fourth-grade trials and tribulations when she gets a strange, silvery letter in the mail. The letter instructs her to be ready at 8:00 that night (with her toothbrush), but she is anything but prepared when a goofy-looking spaceship hovers outside her 17th-story apartment window and takes her to the planet Smoo.

Akiko soon learns from the spaceship's crew that she--of all humans on earth--has been chosen to rescue Prince Froptoppit from an evil, misguided kidnapper. Though she tries to persuade the King, Bip, and Bop that they have the wrong girl (she doesn't even want to be the leader of the girls' safety patrol at school), the friendly trio seems to think she'd be perfect for the job anyway. The quest is not easy. Akiko and a curious, old-fashioned cast of characters (including the scholarly Mr. Beeba; the warbly, incomprehensible Poog; the swashbuckling Spuckler; and Spuckler's rusty robot, Gax) encounter the dreaded Sky Pirates and later, engage in cartoonish, gladiator-style fights with robots and fire-breathing Jaggasaurs. And just like Dorothy in Oz, Akiko finds her courage and faces up to the Jaggasaur, shouting, "You should be ashamed of yourself! Who do you think you are, bullying a scrawny little man like that? Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Young readers may learn that they have more courage than they think. The adventure ends happily, but the book draws to a close before Prince Froptoppit can be rescued. Stay tuned for continuing adventures? (Ages 8 to 12) --Karin Snelson

From the Inside Flap:

When fourth grader Akiko finds a spacecraft hovering outside her window one night, she begins the adventure of a lifetime. She is whisked off to the planet Smoo to lead a team searching for the King of Smoo's kidnapped son. Akiko the head of a rescue mission? She's afraid to be on the school's safety patrol! So begins the adventures of Akiko, wherein she meets her team -- Spuckler Boach, Gax, Poog, and Mr. Beeba -- and sets off on a journey across Smoo to find a prince and become a leader.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-03-01
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1435227999
• ISBN 13: 9781435227996
• Binding: Library Binding