In a series opener for younger fans of Scott Seegert's Sci-fi Junior High (2017), Bob, an otherwise ordinary Earthling, suffers diverse misadventures tably one that leaves him with his tongue stuck to frozen Pluto, and another that takes him all too close to a black hole's event horizon (or, as his teacher calls it, the "bye-bye forever zone") orbiting Astro Elementary's newest student. Meanwhile, he also falls in with Beep, a manic froglike space alien who thinks he's its mother, and through several humiliating encounters, forms a budding friendship with Laniakea Supercluster, a cool classmate with a jar of strangely intelligent spiders (one, for instance, weaving a web with the message "Some Pig"). Roth closes with a chapter of "Extra Credit Fun Space Facts" about Pluto, but along with small, comical vignettes and views of Bob looking panicky, he also slips weightless science talk and even an occasional equation into the narrative. All pretty sporky, as Bob would approvingly put it.

Bob, a human boy, and Beep, an ET, have adventures in space.After answering a multiple-choice test solely with "C," Bob accidentally receives the highest test score on the planet and is invited to Astro Elementary, a school in space—which, according to Bob, is "THE MOST TERRIFYING PLACE EVER!" The spot illustrations (credited by narrator Bob to Beep) portray Bob and the other human characters as light-skinned, including Bob's female classmate Lani—whom he appears to like, though he won't admit it. (On the cover, he appears to have light brown skin, however.) When he answers a knock at the airlock door, Bob finds Beep, an extraterrestrial separated from his family, who adopts Bob as his "Bob-mother." Bob chronicles their adventures as "splogs" addressed to the Kids of the Past; the first is a field trip to Pluto. When Bob foolishly gets his tongue stuck on the dwarf planet's surface, he's saved by Lani's quick thinking, even as she laments the foolishness of "Boys." Similarly shallow and ridiculous high jinks take up the remainder of the book. While the episodic plot and minimal science could be forgiven given the early-chapter-book audience, the fact that the future—and space—holds the same gender assumptions that plague the here and now is more than unfortunate. Here's hoping the next installment has the depth and creativity science fiction should deliver. (Science fiction. 6-9)

Gr 1-4 When Bob took the test to go to Astro Elementary, a school on a space station orbiting Saturn, he never thought, and definitely never hoped, he would have a chance of getting in. Little did he know answering "C" for every question would earn him a perfect score. Now in space, Bob is tasked with recording his adventures in a series of space blogs, or splogs, to be sent to the past so readers can learn about the super-cool future. Bob is less than thrilled to be living in space, but when he rescues a lost alien who turns up at the space station door, his school experience turns around. Beep, who treats Bob like his mother, loves to eat socks and sticks close to Bob's side. But Beep, in his confused and naive way, easily gets Bob into trouble. He convinces him to lick the surface of Pluto while they are on a field trip because it tastes like an orange ice pop, sending the two into a spiral of an adventure. And all Bob wants to do is make it through the school year, and maybe get his crush Lani to like him. Roth creates many unusual space terms and infuses the story with humor and gross details that are sure to make kids giggle. Beep is a cute and fun sidekick and Bob is relatable as an average kid in a not-so-average situation. Illustrations in a simple style add to the silliness of the story. VERDICT A strong addition to any library's chapter book selection. Offer to kids who love funny stories but may be too young for books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid . Erica Deb, Matawan Aberdeen Public Library, NJ