Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat

December 1, 2018
Wyss-Kuzz was such an evil warlord his feline people rose up and dusted off an ancient punishment: exile via teleporter to the most awful place in the cosmos, Earth.Raj Bannerjee, soon-to-be sixth-grader, has been exiled from his beloved Brooklyn to Elba, Oregon, which is creepily full of nature. Unbeknownst to the Bannerjees, an alien has been banished to their front yard. Wyss-Kuzz, terrified of the liquid falling from the sky, seeks shelter in one of the fortresses inhabited by furless ogres who are so stupid they can't understand his feline language (or recognize his vast superiority). Raj has always wanted a cat and promises to go to survival camp if he can keep Klawde, as his clueless father's renamed the alien warlord. Can Raj survive survival camp? Can Wyss-Kuzz bend these disgusting primitives to his will and get them to build him a transporter so he can exact revenge on his home planet? Earth cats are imbeciles, but a mind-meld can conquer the language barrier with humans...but that may cause more troubles than it solves. Wyss-Kuzz and Raj trade off narration duties in Marciano and Chenoweth's first of four hissterical interstellar adventures. Wyss-Kuzz's constant misinterpretation of things earthly and Raj's goofy new friends and enemies at camp will hook even reluctant readers. Mommaerts's two-color, cartoon illustrations add more laughs as well as such background details as the Banerjees' Ganesha to confirm their South Asian heritage. Sequel Enemies publishes simultaneously.Fun for feline fanatics and light sci-fi lovers. (Science fiction. 7-11)

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February 1, 2019
Grades 2-5 Lord High Emperor Wyss-Kuzz of the planet Lyttyrboks has been sent into exile on Earth. Upon landing, he seeks shelter in the home of a small ogre called Raj, who also feels misplaced as his family moved from New York to Oregon. Forced to attend a survival camp, he agrees to go if he is allowed to keep Wyss-Kuzz, now named Klawde. Klawde soon mind-melds with Raj so he can speak English, and explains that he desperately misses home and needs Raj's opposable thumbs to help build a teleportation device. As they work together, Klawde decides to let Raj come with him because Raj would make a great one-man giant army for his reconquering plan! When Raj's camp Survival Night goes horribly wrong and he calls on Klawde for help, Klawde rushes to his aid. Will Klawde return home or will he choose to stay with his new family? With cute illustrations, hilarious misunderstandings, and pun-filled names, readers of all ages will claw their way to the second book (published simultaneously).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)