EXPIRATION DATE: NEVER

Twins Tod and Tessa face double trouble in a sidesplitting follow-up to Be First in the Universe (2000). When even an infusion of DNA extracted from evil Ned and Nancy Gneiss, descendants of Vlad the Impaler, proves too weak to save Planet Gemini from an invasion of galactic tourists known as Vorons, aliens Gemini Jack and his sister Jill return to Middle Valley Mall in search of more help from humans, renowned as the most annoying creatures in the universe. Meanwhile, not only have the altered Gneiss twins suddenly become sickeningly goody-goody, but veteran rock drummer Nigel Throbber has chosen Tod’s and Tessa’s barn to rehearse his thunderous magnum opus, “Drummerdämmerung.” Happily, relief is but a tangle of subplots, corny jokes, chases, general chaos, and clever twists away; by the end, the Gneiss twins are nasty again, and Throbber has happily departed on a wildly successful interplanetary tour. Though not a sequel that stands on its own, this will have readers rocking with laughter and rolling in the aisles. (Fiction. 9-11)