Waiting for the Voo

In this offbeat SF adventure, first in the Warrensberg trilogy, 13-year-old Wilkin Delgado isn’t pleased when his mother invites a friend and her daughter to move in with them. Alice Jane Zelinski—a 14-year-old with tattoos, gray hair, and an anger management problem—doesn’t want to be there either. Then Wilkin’s mother takes in yet another eccentric tenant. Cardamon Webb, who is a bit like a cross between Willy Wonka and “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski, calls himself a plumber, but he’s actually on a quest to fill a dangerous galactic hole, and he needs Wilkin and Alice Jane’s help to prevent their world from being infiltrated by otherworldly “riffraff.” Ammerman builds chemistry between the two central characters through their alternating first-person points of view, but the many outlandish creatures they encounter—demonic birds, “porcelain killer dolls,” and lots of ferrets—feel more like diversionary instruments of chaos than key plot elements. Still, it’s good fun watching Alice Jane and Wilkin romp through the muck of the universe. Books two and three, Escape from Dorkville and The Last Ma-Loo, are also available. Ages 8–12. (BookLife)