(4) 1-3 Blast Off Boy and Blorp series. Two interplanetary exchange students prepare for their respective school science fairs. Blorp, who's visiting Earth, creates an elaborate can opener, not realizing that the invention already exists. Meanwhile, Blast Off Boy, who's visiting planet Meep, has a last-minute idea that wins the fair. The alternating stories, featuring stylized color artwork, are uneven: Blorp's tale is witty, but Blast Off Boy's adventure falls flat.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) 1-3 Blast Off Boy and Blorp series. With his mildly retro Jetson-style illustrations and short, easily digested alternating episodes, Yaccarino tells the stories of Blast Off Boy and Blorp, exchange students on different planets who each get a new pet. The shtick about Blorp's voracious pet baby hippo never quite works, but Blast Off Boy's slobbery pet schloppo, with its transformation from nuisance to pal, is fresh and funny.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) 1-3 Blast Off Boy and Blorp series. Blast Off Boy, an Earth exchange student on planet Meep, feels hopelessly alone and behind in his weird new school; Blorp, the Meep exchange student, enthusiastically takes on his Earth school, but his classmates find him pretty alien. Delightfully retro typeface and Jetson-style space illustrations tell a decidedly down-to-earth tale of a kid fitting into a new class--and a class accepting a new kid.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam