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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2000 | -- |
With this, the first of four novels, Crilley's serialized character Akiko, who has appeared in 37 comic-book adventures, will reach a whole new audience of science fiction fans. When fourth-grader Akiko receives a peculiar letter telling her to be at her bedroom window in the evening and to bring her toothbrush, she is intrigued but a little scared. Two strangers from another galaxy show up outside her window in a convertible spacecar with her robot double and convince her to go hurtling through space in search of the kidnapped son of King Froptoppit. With the assistance of the scholarly Mr. Beeba; Spuckler, the space cowboy and his robot sidekick; and the mysterious floating Poog, Akiko battles sky pirates and narrowly escapes being eaten by a Jaggasaur. The action is fast-paced and nicely illustrated with the author's black-and-white sketches, and Crilley's easy-reading, conversational style is appealing, as are his broadly drawn characters. The book ends abruptly--in true comic-book serial fashion--leaving readers wondering what will come next. (Reviewed March 1, 2000)
Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)Fourth-grader Akiko travels to the Planet Smoo and agrees to lead the mission to rescue the kidnapped prince from the evil Alia Rellapor. On the way to the rescue, however, the plot diverts into pointless prefatory skirmishes with sky pirates, and then the book ends. Flat characters engage in adventures without much dramatic tension in this comic-book adaptation. Black-and-white drawings accompany the text.
Kirkus ReviewsOpening episodes of a comic-book series created by an American teacher in Japan take a leap into chapter-book format, with only partial success. Resembling—in occasional illustrations—a button-eyed, juvenile Olive Oyl, Akiko, 10, is persuaded by a pair of aliens named Bip and Bop to climb out her high-rise bedroom's window for a trip to M&M-shaped Planet Smoo, where Prince Fropstoppit has been kidnapped by widely feared villainness Alia Rellaport. Along with an assortment of contentious sidekicks, including brainy Mr. Beeba, Akiko battles Sky Pirates and video-game-style monsters in prolonged scenes of cartoony violence, displaying resilience, courage, and leadership ability, but not getting very far in her rescue attempt; in fact, the story cuts off so abruptly, with so little of the quest completed, and at a lull in the action to boot, that readers expecting a self-contained (forget complete) story are likely to feel cheated. (Fiction. 10-12)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)Fourth-grader Akiko, thanks to a group of aliens, finds herself on a rescue mission to save a kidnapped prince in these two volumes. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW called <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Planet Smoo a "stylish debut." All ages. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(June)
School Library JournalGr 3-5-Soon after 10-year-old Akiko receives a mysterious letter, a spaceship convertible piloted by two friendly aliens arrives with a robot replica of her to take her place on Earth. They explain that she has been summoned to the planet Smoo to rescue King Froptoppit's kidnapped son. That the girl has no experience in rescuing people doesn't faze the monarch at all; he is sure she's the right person for the job. Assisting Akiko on this mission are the scholarly but clueless Mr. Beeba; Poog, a floating head who communicates good advice in high-pitched noises; Spuckler Boach, a good-natured space cowboy with a penchant for seeking out trouble; and Gax, Spuckler's trusty robot. When they are captured by space pirates, Akiko takes charge. At the end, the rescuers fly off into the stars to continue their unfinished mission. Crilley originally wrote Akiko as a serialized adventure, and it shows; each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger. In fact, the book, too, ends this way, and readers are left wondering what happens next, as the story seems more like a setup for a sequel than an entity unto itself. The leadership theme is occasionally overdone, but this doesn't detract from the story's humor. Black-and-white cartoons illustrate this chapter book.-Lisa Prolman, Greenfield Public Library, MA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
ALA Booklist (Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2000)
Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal
My name is Akiko. This is the story of the adventure I had a few months ago when I went to the planet Smoo. I know it's kind of hard to believe, but it really did happen. I swear.
I'd better go back to the beginning: the day I got the letter.
It was a warm, sunny day. There were only about five weeks left before summer vacation, and kids at school were already itching to get out. Everybody was talking about how they'd be going to camp, or some really cool amusement park, or whatever. Me, I knew I'd be staying right here in Middleton all summer, which was just fine by me. My dad works at a company where they hardly ever get long vacations, so my mom and I have kind of gotten used to it.
Anyway, it was after school and my best friend, Melissa, and I had just walked home together as always. Most of the other kids get picked up by their parents or take the bus, but Melissa and I live close enough to walk to school every day. We both live just a few blocks away in this big apartment building that must have been built about a hundred years ago. Actually I think it used to be an office building or something, but then somebody cleaned it up and turned it into this fancy new apartment building. It's all red bricks and tall windows, with a big black fire escape in the back. My parents say they'd rather live somewhere out in the suburbs, but my dad has to be near his office downtown.
Melissa lives on the sixth floor but she usually comes up with me to the seventeenth floor after school. She's got three younger brothers and has to share her bedroom with one of them, so she doesn't get a whole lot of privacy. I'm an only child and I've got a pretty big bedroom all to myself, so that's where Melissa and I spend a lot of our time.
On that day we were in my room as usual, listening to the radio and trying our best to make some decent card houses. Melissa was telling me how cool it would be if I became the new captain of the fourth-grade safety patrol.
"Come on, Akiko, it'll be good for you," she said. "I practically promised Mrs. Miller that you'd do it."
"Melissa, why can't somebody else be in charge of the safety patrol?" I replied. "I'm no good at that kind of stuff. Remember what happened when Mrs. Antwerp gave me the lead role in the Christmas show?"
Melissa usually knows how to make me feel better about things, but even she had to admit last year's Christmas show was a big disaster.
"That was different, Akiko," she insisted. "Mrs. Antwerp had no idea you were going to get stage fright like that."
"It was worse than stage fright, Melissa," I said. "I can't believe I actually forgot the words to 'Jingle Bells.'"
"This isn't the Christmas show," she said. "You don't have to memorize any words to be in charge of the
safety patrol." She was carefully beginning the third floor of a very ambitious card house she'd been working on for about half an hour.
"Why can't I just be a member of the safety patrol?" I asked her.
"Because Mrs. Miller needs a leader," she said. "I'd do it, but I'm already in charge of the softball team."
And I knew Melissa meant it, too. She'd be in charge of everything at school if she could. Me, I prefer to let someone else be the boss. Sure, there are times when I wish I could be the one who makes all the decisions and tells everybody else what to do. I just don't want to be the one who gets in trouble when everything goes wrong.
"Besides," Melissa continued, "it would be a great way for you to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick. He's in charge of the boys' safety patrol." One thing about Melissa: No matter what kind of conversation you have with her, one way or another you end up talking about boys.
"What makes you so sure I want to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick?" The card house I'd been working on had completely collapsed, and I was trying to decide whether it was worth the trouble to start a new one.
"Trust me, Akiko," she said with a big grin, "everyone wants to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick."
"I don't even like him," I said, becoming even more anxious to change the subject.
"How can you not like him?" she asked, genuinely puzzled. "He's one of the top five cute guys in the fourth grade."
"I can't believe you actually have a list of who's cute and who isn't."
Excerpted from Akiko on the Planet Smoo by Mark Crilley
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
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.