Cosmoehas a snarky response to every situation, and evil queens, monster worms, andkiller robots aren’t going to keep him from sharing his perspective. Co-ownerof the best food truck in the galaxy, the Neon Wiener, he’s cruising along justfine without a sidekick princess, thank you very much, but he gets one anywayafter Princess Dagger decides to break away from her Evil Queen mother. Thesnappy dialogue, quick pace, and compact text (most pages are partially to mostlyillustration, in a format appealing to graphic-novel lovers) keep things movingat the right speed for such an outlandish plot. Cosmoe’s tendency to shoutirreverent things at any opportunity (“Butts!” is a favored exclamation), hisfearlessness, and his cool alien best friends make him quite the appealingprotagonist, and readers will be right there with him, hoping he can save theday and get back to making the best hot dogs in the galaxy pronto. Alien factlists, clever sidenotes, and amusing, comic book–style art add to theparty.

This print edition of the webcomic Galactic Hot Dogs compiles the first 26 chapters into a more or less cohesive tale featuring young Earth gamer Cosmoe and his hulking alien buddy Humphree. Rocketing through interstellar space aboard their futuristic hot dog stand, The Neon Wiener, the two start by trying to enter their Mega-Dog in the Great Intragalactic Food Truck Cook-Off, end by blowing up a humongous evil monster with a crate of Humphree’s Hot Hot Sauce, and in between face challenges ranging from zombie space pirates to dealing with annoying stowaway Princess Dagger. The page design, which tends toward a mad, jagged jumble of fragmentary black-and-white action cartoons, boxes of hyped-up dialogue, splinters of narrative text in multiple sizes, and loud sound effects, takes getting used to but effectively conveys the furious pacing of the plot’s roller-coaster array of feats and fails. Readers who have already stepped up to the Neon Wiener online will welcome newly added comments between chapters by a robotic sidekick.

"Mind-blowing action and big-time fun!"

The slang and invented language used along with thepremise of this book, first in a new series, is silly. However, the sciencefiction adventure story is more than meets the eye and as it unfolded I foundmyself laughing out loud. Cosmoe is the captain of the best flying foodtruck around the galaxy. In addition to cooking hot dogs, he protects theuniverse from the evil villain. Students with lower reading comprehensionskills would truly enjoy this book. Text features are interesting and theF.R.E.D facts will help lure kids into being excited about reading. Reluctantreaders will be engaged in the graphics illustrations, short facts inserted intothe middle of a chapter, and the easy-to-read sentences. The book is funny,engaging, and has the potential to turn a non-reading student into someone wholoves books.