INTO THE DORKNESS

Earth is again in danger from the galaxy’s most vile criminals. Can the team of STEM summer campers called the Extraordinary Terrestrials save all?

In series opener Galaxy’s Most Wanted (2014), Kevin, Tara, TJ, Warner, and their unfortunately shrunken friend, extraterrestrial cyborg cop Klyk, trounced outer-space criminal Mim, whom the kids inadvertently called to Earth with the galactoscope they invented. Now, Mim’s cronies, Zouric and Nuzz, have arrived. After freeze-bombing the camp, they set about taking over the planet with nanotech mind control. The kids escape but soon lose their new ally, Marcy, recruited from the girls’ soccer camp next door. Can they escape a brainwashed army of reptilian soldiers, find their comic-book–writer idol (who presciently creates comics detailing the dangers they face), and save the world? Kloepfer’s second humorous sci-fi adventure turns on the action on the first page and does a good job sustaining it all the way through. Edwards’ goggle-eyed, goofy line drawings extend the fun (final art not seen). Readers could actually skip the first book, which was slow to start, and begin here. The satisfying conclusion nicely sets up Volume 3, likely to be a less-terrestrial escapade. Fans of Kloepfer’s Zombie Chasers series will find this outing less gross but just as imaginative.

Good, loony science-fiction fun.