April 1, 2005
Gr 5-8 -Norbert, a tiny alien, and his Earth friend Alan Dingwall return in this fourth installment in the series. Here, the two pals travel to Jupiter where Alan discovers that Norbert is actually a prince. The evil Black Dey has stolen Norbert's royal girlfriend, and the boys set out to decipher and then enact an ancient prophecy foretelling the Black Dey's downfall at the hands of an earthling. From frogs that quote baseball statistics to the nonverbal communication some youngsters prefer ("Hard to know what to do when a friend is almost crying...I decide to punch him in the shoulder....Then he nods, and pokes me in the stomach. So we're good"), Scrimger knows and plays to his target audience. While Alan's problems with his mother aren't well integrated into the story and the plot is unsubstantiated in places, there are sufficient alien details and slapstick quips to keep even reluctant readers going. Purchase this title if the series has done well in your library; otherwise, try Tor Seidler's "Brainboy and the Deathmaster" (HarperCollins, 2003) or Quentin Dodd's "Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars"(Farrar, 2001) for excellent sci-fi fare." -Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT"
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