Aliens, flying saucers, holes in space, time travel, a dimensional field destabilizer, an eccentric inventor, a boy who can fix any engine, and a Skreepish Commander ready for revenge.  Anything could happen!

It was 1956, just after dawn, one cold morning in the tiny town of Vern Hollow, when Jack Creedle saw a huge turquoise flying saucer land in the woods just outside of town.  A week later, the town was almost deserted.  Everyone was afraid of the aliens, especially since their leader had appeared on television.  It looked like a huge, ugly, and very dangerous spider.   But Jack and his mother and his Uncle Bud, who was an inventor, didn't leave.  Which was a very good thing for Dr. Shumway and her daughter.  Their car had been making strange noises, and died just as they got to the garage Uncle Bud owned and Jack ran.  But Jack knew he could fix anything, and sure enough, after a few minutes, he figured out the problem.  He could find the part he needed at the junkyard, but he couldn't get there till tomorrow.  They could spend the night at the boarding house his mother ran. 

Just about that time, Commander Xaafuun was trying to contact her Finder, Ensign Fooney, who was supposed to be looking for the Special Item they had been ordered to find and take back to The Exalted One, their Queen.  Unfortunately, all Fooney had found was a bunch of buurds that apparently belonged to one of the ooman bings that populated this heavy and uncomfortable planet.  Time was running out, her Finder was acting like an idiot, and they were 153 light-years away from home.

The Commander doesn't know it, but in only a few hours, Fooney will have found the Special Item, captured it and six ooman bings, and brought them on board.  They could finally begin the trip home.

That's how Jack, his Uncle Bud, Dr. Shumway, her daughter Isadora, police chief Webb, and his son Grady, ended up on the flying saucer, in transgalactic space, and in the middle of a great many unpleasant things that they had never wanted to know about, but now had to figure out how to survive.  The little town of Vern Hollow doesn't seem boring after all.

This booktalk was written by Joni Richards Bodart, university professor, author, school/library consultant, and internationally known booktalker.

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  The Doom Machine by Mark Teague When a spaceship lands in Vern Hollow, Jack's hometown, he and his no-account inventor-uncle Bud are busy trying to fix a car driven by Dr. Shumway and her daughter, Isadora. Although Uncle Bud secretly knows the aliens are after one of his inventions, everyone is surprised when the space aliens capture seven of Vern Hollow's residents and take them into outer space on a wild adventure. After a series of twists and turns, all of them are taken to Skreepia, the aliens' planet, where they have to defeat the Skreep queen before she can use Uncle Bud's invention to take over planet Earth. Filled with wonderful detail, humor, inventive dialog, and irresistible black-and-white spot art, THE DOOM MACHINE is a tour de force by one of America's most beloved storytellers. Readers will be caught up in the page-turning action, while at the same time they will love Mark's beautifully drawn evil space aliens--and an unlikely friendship between Jack and Isadora, who seem to have nothing in common at the beginning of the tale. As with the best science fiction, this novel speeds along without a hitch, and carries readers off into a brand-new world. A fantastic and accessible read for middle graders. Publishers Weekly Starred Review - Picture book author/illustrator Teague (Dear Mrs. LaRue) has produced a madcap, heavily illustrated tale chockfull of malevolent aliens and superscience as well as a fair share of silliness. The year is 1956 and young Jack Creedle is a good-natured juvenile delinquent who can work wonders with engines, while his disreputable Uncle Bud may just be the world's greatest inventor. Equally brilliant are Isadora and her straitlaced mother, Dr. Shumway ('A lady scientist!' remarks the mayor of Jack's town after the Shumways are stranded there. 'That's something you don't see every day'). When alien skreeps, led by Commander Xaafuun (who hates 'ooman bings'), invade in search of Bud's most recent invention, Jack and Isadora are caught up in a rollicking interstellar adventure, replete with a crew of space pirates, a deposed princess, a wide variety of monsters and a pugnacious rooster named Milo ('Growing up had made the chicken mean. He was a typical Creedle in that way'). Borrowing wildly from pulp fiction, bad movies and even Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Teague has a wonderful time with this occasionally disjointed but endlessly inventive first novel. $17.99 books;hardcovers | Ages 9-12

  
  The Doom Machine
  Ages 9-12 $17.99
  
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  Querida Sra. LaRue by Mark Teague Meet Ike LaRue -- an imaginative dog "imprisoned" at a canine academy. If your child's ever felt homesick, he'll delight in the weepy letters Ike writes to his owner begging to come home. Split-screen illustrations paint what Ike's life is really like in color (dog treats and fun activities abound) while black-and-white drawings contrast the hardships Ike describes in his notes. Spanish-language edition. This lively picture book introduces the concept of irony, builds courage, $4.99 Paperback Book | Grades K-2

  
  Querida Sra. LaRue
  Grades K-2 $4.99