BOBO CRAZY
by Marilyn Sadler & illustrated by Roger Bollen
Introduced originally in a 1996 picture book, then a made-for-TV movie, space-station-dwelling preteen Zenon Kar kicks off her chapter-book series with a slangy girl-meets-robodog tale. Live pets aren’t allowed aboard Space Station #9, but the new, improved mechanical Tobo dog is better than a real one; it can fly, spout jokes, and even do homework. Zenon’s friends all rush out and get one, but her frackle-pinching father won’t spring for anything pricier than the dopey, inarticulate Bobo model. What a scorch. Zenon is truly flared up, until her teacher awards everyone, except her, a failing mark for letting their dogs do their homework. When all of the Tobos develop tuton shorts in their flystroms and attack their owners, Bobo doesn’t look so bad—but where has he gone? The characters are as abbreviated as the plot, but Bollen adds comical cartoon illustrations to every page of Zenon’s brisk narrative. A glossary helps readers who’ve been put into a Martian mist by her argot, and by the end she and her metal mutt are reunited. No rocket fuel required for this lighter-than-air vehicle. (Fiction. 8-10)