Patrick Griffin's Last Breakfast on Earth

Gr 5–7—When Patrick Griffin wakes up one rainy March morning, he discovers two things: that he's completely home alone and that there are no waffles for his breakfast. Since he is the middle child of seven kids, being home alone is actually more of a blessing than a curse, so he decides to make the most of his time and do things he isn't supposed to do. And one of those is a science experiment in the kitchen sink. When the experiment explodes and Patrick is knocked out, he wakes up to find himself in an even more bizarre situation: he is now in a parallel world called Ith with strange, big-eyed humanoid creatures that are obsessed with their "binkies," smartphonelike devices. At first, Patrick is convinced that this is all a dream, and he tries in vain to wake himself up. What he doesn't know is that he is now unexpectedly part of a plot to stop the takeover of his world by evil technocrats and when he awoke in that world, a huge jackalope awoke in his. What follows are a series of bizarre and sometimes funny escapades as Patrick has to figure out how to get back home and also decide if he wants to help save Ith and Earth from the technocrats. Though imaginative, Patrick's story drags; it takes far too long for the plot to really take off and for the complex tale to fully be explained. Rust shifts perspectives continuously, going from Patrick's experiences to his various family members to the jackalope and even occasionally to the evil leader of the technocrats, giving the work a disjointed feeling. The ending is unresolved, which some readers may find frustrating, particularly because of how long it takes for the book to find its footing.