Picture book author/illustrator Teague (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Dear Mrs. LaRue) has produced a madcap, heavily illustrated tale chockfull of malevolent aliens and superscience as well as a fair share of silliness. The year is 1956 and young Jack Creedle is a good-natured juvenile delinquent who can work wonders with engines, while his disreputable Uncle Bud may just be the world’s greatest inventor. Equally brilliant are Isadora and her straitlaced mother, Dr. Shumway (“A lady scientist!” remarks the mayor of Jack’s town after the Shumways are stranded there. “That’s something you don’t see every day”). When alien skreeps, led by Commander Xaafuun (who hates “ooman bings”), invade in search of Bud’s most recent invention, Jack and Isadora are caught up in a rollicking interstellar adventure, replete with a crew of space pirates, a deposed princess, a wide variety of monsters and a pugnacious rooster named Milo (“Growing up had made the chicken mean. He was a typical Creedle in that way”). Borrowing wildly from pulp fiction, bad movies and even Vonnegut’s <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Slaughterhouse Five, Teague has a wonderful time with this occasionally disjointed but endlessly inventive first novel. Ages 9–12.<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC""> (Oct.)

Gr 4-7 Teague doesn't hold anything back in his first full-length novel. Readers are treated to some of his classic storytelling elements including inquisitive kids, aliens of many varieties, and interesting gizmos. In 1956, Jack Creedle is just beginning his paper route when a flying saucer passes overhead and lands nearby. A week later Vern Hollow is mostly deserted when Isadora Shumway and her mother, a highly respected scientist, arrive there as their car gives out. Jack repairs it and he and the Shumways attempt to leave town with Jack's Uncle Bud. Of course, all four of them are captured by the alien skreeps, giant spiderlike beings from a vast and cruel empire. As in any epic, these heroes journey across strange landscapes, face difficult choices, receive unexpected help, and eventually triumph with their new allies. The author subtly weaves in commentary on the skreeps, who think only of themselves and who leave entire worlds barren in order to enjoy their resources. Teague's signature artwork livens up an already gripping story. This isn't hard science fiction, but talk of wormholes and other science fits the story well. It's a great story with engaging characters and a good deal of humor. Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Teague jumps from writing and illustrating picture books into the novel form with this bold splash of 1950s-era science fiction. Local troublemaker Jack Creedle, accompanied by a strict scientist and her no-nonsense daughter, Jack's daffy inventor uncle, and the town cop and his bullish son, goes on an interstellar romp aboard a flying saucer full of spiderlike aliens called skreeps. Jack's uncle has invented a "dimensional field destabilizer," which the skreeps intend to steal and use for any number of nefarious purposes, including the enslavement of the human race. Throughout, Teague ably balances action and mirth. Still, readers might have trouble keeping track of the seemingly endless parade of aliens (wait, which one's Furgok and which one's Gloorg?), and the deep-space jaunt might extend a planet or two too far. With all the gooey alien zaniness, Teague's dry humor is a welcome counterpunch, while the unexpectedly original twists of space-time malleability give readers something to chew on. His illustrations add some depth to the book's nostalgic sci-fi flair.

Teague puts a campy spin on intergalactic war. In 1956, skreeps (spiderlike aliens) kidnap Bud Creedle, inventor of a "dimensional field destabilizer" that cuts through the space-time continuum. The burden of saving Earth falls to juvenile delinquent Jack and budding scientist Isadora; the story's action is fast and furious. Teague's visual writing and numerous black-and-white illustrations help readers picture the alien assortment.

A small band of more-or-less ordinary Earth humans takes on a galactic empire in Teague's first full-blown novel ( Funny Farm , 2009, etc.). When the Dimensional Field Stabilizer that Uncle Bud has cooked up in his small-town garage draws a flying saucer full of piratical, spiderlike skreeps, young Jack Creedle and a handful of other residents and passersby suddenly find themselves captives, hurtling through time and space toward Planet Skreepia and (eventually, after many adventures) a climactic dustup with the Skreep Queen. Details in the story, which is set in 1956, and the occasional spot or full-page illustrations add a retro tone to the tale, as do the many pulp-magazinestyle furry, chitinous or rubbery aliens met along the way. Though the author gives most of the active roles to the grown-ups, leaving Jack and his science-crazy new friend Isadora largely observers, his feeling for oddball characters and twists recalls Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday (2007) and should draw the same audience. (Science fiction. 11-13)