A seventh-grader stumbles into some intergalactic shenanigans.Nicholas V. Landrew is a typical middle schooler, with little about him people might find remarkable or unusual. But once Nicholas is beamed aboard a Craborzi spaceship he becomes quite distinct to the larger universe. With his beloved gerbil, Henrietta, and a package of ground beef as traveling companions, Nicholas zips across the galaxy trying to get back to his parents before he gets in trouble. The ensuing novel wears its debt to Douglas Adams on its sleeve, mixing a zany adventure with humorous asides that open up the author's peculiar and silly version of the known universe. Readers looking for the standard middle-grade adventure story will find plenty to enjoy here, but the author elevates the material by crafting his novel with the Douglas Adams' toolbox. There's an odd remove from the novel's expected course of events that puts everything just left of center, with the author letting readers know that this is all just a bit of fun that only the written word can create. Nicholas' character does get a bit lost in the shuffle, creating a novel that won't emotionally engage readers but will poke at their intellects here and there. Larkum depicts Nicholas as white in his frequent black-and-white cartoons.A Hitchhiker's Guide for the middle school set. (Science fiction. 9-12)

Dedicated to Douglas Adams and positively abrim with Hitchhiker's Guide style snark, Lubar's latest (Ghost Attack, 2017) sends an ignorant but game seventh-grader, a gerbil, and a package of hamburger e latter two suddenly able to think and talk thanks to one of the many futuristic (not to mention, plot) devices on hand an intergalactic romp. The adventure begins when Nicholas, Henrietta the gerbil, and the hamburger (dubbed Jeef, for "Grass Fed") are kidnapped by caterpillar-like Craborzi for an episode of the popular reality show Let's Cut Things Up! From there, it careens onward past nick-of-time escapes, exploding planets, and encounters with wildly imaginative aliens (notably Morglob Sputum, Pflemhackian talent agent to the stars, described as "the world's largest sneeze"). All of this is related in sheaves of short chapters punctuated by side comments, Larkum's spot art (not seen), and Nicholas' favorite exclamation: "Roach brains!" In the end, Nicholas, Henrietta, and (in a sense) Jeef get back to Earth, set up for a planned sequel. A cosmically comic caper, no matter how you slice it.