FICTION

Emperor of the Universe

by David Lubar
Starscape/Tor/. Jul. 2019. 368p. Tr $13.99. ISBN 9781250189233.
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Gr 4-7–On the day that 12-year-old Nicholas V. Landrew gets a two-week suspension for bringing a toy lightsaber to school, a teleportation portal opens up in his gerbil Henrietta’s cage, transporting him, Henrietta, and a newly self-aware package of hamburger meat named Jeef into outer space. This madcap journey, an homage to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, features all the random probability, unlikely heroes, and intergalactic viral videos that readers could want. Lubar’s quick-moving satire skewers consumerism, war, and Internet culture, while still centering Nicholas’s experience as he realizes that the universe is much larger than he ever imagined.
VERDICT Fans of Dav Pilkey, Jon Scieszka, and Tom Angleberger will race to read this smart and silly space adventure
Reviewed by Molly Saunders, Homewood Public Library, AL , Jun 01, 2019

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