Monsters, aliens, ghosts, giant frogs, and a tragic angel are just some of the ingredients of this madcap adventure that is quite possibly Bruce Coville’s strangest novel yet. Bruce himself appears on this recording as Gaspar Morley, head of a strange family of monsters that draw Anthony (our narrator) and his little sister Sarah into a galaxy-spanning adventure with the very souls of Earth’s dead at stake.

The adventure begins at a Nebraska garage sale, where a boy and his younger sister buy a wooden box containing five monster figurines. The action doesn't let up until sixth-grader Anthony and his sister have been transported across the galaxy and back. Bruce Coville's funny sci-fi adventure is read in its entirety by a thirteen-person cast, including Leslie Nobel narrating as Anthony and Coville as the lizard-headed Gaspar Morley. The story--something that can only come out of a mind like Coville's--is irresistibly entertaining and constantly surprising, not only for the preteen crowd but for their parents as well. There are no bells and whistles; this production is a straight reading from the book without staging or sound effects. Leslie Nobel does a good reading but is not quite convincing as a 12-year-old boy. Nevertheless, this intergalactic adventure is ultimately satisfying. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine