The Training Master

July 1, 2005
Gr 3-6 -Akiko, now in fifth grade, is more ready than ever to trade places with her robot look-alike and zoom into space. This time, the girl and her alien friends are headed for the Intergalactic Space Patrollers Training Camp on Zarga Baffa. Can Akiko withstand the gross food, the physical and mental tests, and her training master's rough treatment? She starts to fail miserably and wonders if she should -cry blue - and leave the program. However, as her pal Spuckler says, she's -a fighter, not a quitter. - When an accident puts the training masters' lives in danger, she is the one student willing to break the rules to rescue them. There is humor as well as action in this lively confection; Akiko struggles to earn Ds (for distinguished) and Fs (for first-rate). She consults a Yoda-like mentor who gives her a mysterious container and urges her to -Draw upon the power within - to open it -then reveals that it is a jar of jelly with a stubborn lid. Akiko's confusion as she faces the often-wacky unknowns of intergalactic society will resonate with kids trying to figure out what's going on around them here on Earth. This lighthearted series began as an indie comic, and the book's roots show in the anime-influenced art, derring-do adventures, and Akiko's indomitable spirit." -Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2005
Training with alien friends Spuckler, Gax, Mr. Beeba, and Poog as space patrollers on planet Zarga Baffa, Earth pre-teen Akiko faces over-the-top hardships and fails at cartoonish skill tests. A cruiser accident and some heroically strained reasoning ensure Akiko ends up rescuing her unforgiving training master. Though better than others in the series, this tale still smacks of contrivance.

(Copyright 2005 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)