Patrick Griffin’s Last Breakfast on Earth

Rust, coauthor of several books with James Patterson, serves up a slightly ponderous screwball comedy about an average boy who finds himself “transubstantiated” to an alternate Earth, called Ith, in exchange for a large, sentient jackalope named Mr. BunBun. Ith has a highly regulated surveillance society where everyone has gigantic eyes and tiny ears, and is obsessed with cell phones and personal safety, the result of an attempt by anarchists to use a pandemic to wipe out the planet. The people of Ith were supposedly saved by Rex Abraham, an Earthling who arrived just in time to prevent their extinction, and the Ithlings worship him as a demigod. Mr. Bunbun, however, knows the truth: “Rex Abraham, Decimator of Worlds,” manufactured the pandemic on Ith and has identical plans for Earth. Although the novel generates some tension, it can also be overly wordy, sapping momentum. It’s perhaps most memorable for Patrick’s confused attempts to fit into Ith’s often absurd society, including learning how to apply makeup, playing contact sports without hitting anyone, and reading its quasi-phonetic language. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)