ELVIS IS MISSING

When Elvis the dog chases a strange creature through the neighborhood, an ordinary evening with the babysitter turns extraterrestrial.

Siblings Val and Mateo Garcia-Jackson, babysitter Jennica, and neighbor Booker know they’ll be in deep trouble if they don’t find Elvis before Mom and Dad get home. The only problem? Elvis has entered a portal to Boogbee City, located on Kroon, the “most awesome planet in Flooktar Nebula.” The gang enlists two friendly alien teens named Clorox and Noway to help them in their quest to rescue the beloved pup. The two don’t seem all that different from earthling adolescents, except for their pointy ears, their all-consuming obsession with pizza, and their tendency to butcher outdated Earth slang learned from old American media. The kids encounter a series of astronomical disasters along the way, from a hovercraft ride that ends in a collision with a band of broccoli smugglers to a trip inside the mouth of a giant monster that eats only once a year. Short, accessible chapters are peppered with angular, cartoonish, black-and-white illustrations, adding depth and humor to Hale’s out-of-this-world text. Though this action-packed alien tale is light on character development, kids will surely gravitate toward it anyway. The Garcia-Jackson kids are cued Latine, while the alien teens are described as having medium brown skin. In the artwork, Booker presents Black, while Jennica appears brown-skinned.

A rollicking intergalactic adventure bursting with laughs and alien antics.