THE BIG SCIENCE FAIR

Blast Off Boy and Blorp, the two unlikely intergalactic exchange students in Yaccarino’s early reader series (First Day on a New Planet, 2000, etc.) have their third adventure on their adopted planets. Here they’re getting ready for their respective science fairs and once again, Yaccarino tells their parallel stories in alternating sections, indicated by oversized first letters backed by symbols of Earth or Meep. Blorp enthusiastically embraces the task and sets right to work, ignoring the helpful hints from his host parents, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Blorp’s enthusiasm is in direct contrast to Blast Off Boy’s dread when faced with this project. All the brainy aliens are planning their macaroni models of hydrogen molecules, atom splitters, and the like. When Blast Off Boy boasts to the class bully that his project will be better than anyone else’s, the race is on. Problem is the little human has no idea what he will create for the fair. The big day arrives and Blorp reveals his amazing contraption to his human friends. Blast Off Boy, after throwing together a lame experiment at the last second, has a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk moment, wins the prize for the best experiment, and gets to see the bully devoured by his project. Yaccarino’s characteristic comic, colorful illustrations, with aliens and humans straight out of a 1950s cartoon, add to the hilarity. His sly sense of the absurd is not lost in the easy-to-read vocabulary. This series is a welcome addition to the library of those just blasting off out of easy readers. (Fiction. 7-9)