Publishers Weekly
11/28/2016
Kelvin Klosmo, the son of two brilliant scientists and the unwitting hero of this fun but disjointed extraterrestrial adventure, has a huge reputation to live up to. As the principal at his new school, Sciriustrati Fibronoculareus Junior High (aka Sci-Fi Junior High), reminds him on his first day: “I can’t even imagine what a genius you must be! We’re expecting incredible things from you, young man.” Kelvin thinks that his biggest problem will be maintaining the guise of being the “smartest kid in the galaxy,” until his community is threatened by an evil scientist. Kelvin scrambles to prove himself and save his friends and family, but weak characterizations and a jumbled narrative can make the story hard to follow as it bounces across the galaxy. Punchy black-and-white spot illustrations and comics sequences appear throughout, playing up the slapstick humor of this collaboration from the duo behind the Vordak the Incomprehensible series. For better or worse, sentences like “What? Zot? Play glormball against Dorn?” will indeed leave readers feeling like they’ve entered an unfamiliar alien landscape. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Sci-Fi Junior High:
A 2017 Parents' Choice Award® winner!
"A diverse crew of extraterrestrial life forms [are] amusingly brought to life in Martin's comic panels.... Echoes of comic books, Star Wars, and 1950s sci-fi classics resound."—Kirkus
"Easily digestible segments, [and] sheaves of cartoons...are interspersed throughout the text, boosting the comedic action into even higher orbit. A crowd pleaser."
—Booklist
"A fun [...] extraterrestrial adventure.... Punchy black-and-white spot illustrations and comics sequences appear throughout, playing up the slapstick humor."—Publisher's Weekly
"It's a classic trope executed so funnily that it manages to seem fresh. Amusing black and white illustrations pepper the text. There's plenty here to warrant another outing with Kelvin in a sequel."—Center for Children's Books
"SCI-FI JUNIOR HIGH is packed with not just galactic-scale laughs, but also genuine middle-school appeal. Saving the universe has never been so much fun!"—Gordon Korman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Masterminds, Swindle and The 39 Clues
"The Final Frontier of funny! Attention all librarians: order extra copies of Sci-Fi Junior High as the waiting list will be long, persistent and potentially riotous. The funny is strong with this one."
—Jake Marcionette, New York Times bestselling author of the Just Jake series
"A sci-fi book for young readers... exciting and interesting enough to hold their attention."—Library Connection
Kirkus Reviews
2016-10-19
Kelvin Klosmo goes to the wacky Sci-Fi Junior High.Kelvin has moved to a new intergalactic space station so that his genius parents can continue their important research. Kelvin is nervous about attending a new school. Everyone expects the product of two geniuses to be twice as smart, but Kelvin's brains haven't quite snapped into place just yet. The white human boy's classmates are a diverse crew of extraterrestrial life forms amusingly brought to life in Martin's comic panels. (The book's intraspecies diversity is not as rich as what's found in many other middle-grade sci-fi books, such as Stuart Gibbs' Moon Base Alpha series.) The book unfurls per middle school drama formula: there's an annoying principal, weird kids, and a pretty (nonhuman) girl, but absent is the character work that makes such James Patterson outings as Jacky Ha-Ha (with co-author Chris Grabenstein, 2016) or Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life (with co-author Chris Tibbetts, 2011) stand apart. This installment in Patterson's empire does not have that magic. Kelvin, his family, and his friends seem to have little interior life, and a subplot involving a nefarious ne'er-do-well goes nowhere. Echoes of comic books, Star Wars, and 1950s sci-fi classics resound, but their influence is not enough to make the book come alive. A cosmic misfire. (Science fiction. 8-10)
