Galaxy Games: The Challengers

by Greg Fishbone (Author)

Galaxy Games: The Challengers
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Series: Galaxy Games
Things are looking up for Tyler Sato (literally!) as he and his friends scan the night sky for a star named for him by his Tokyo cousins in honor of his eleventh birthday. Ordinary stars tend to stay in one place, but Ty's seems to be streaking directly toward Earth at an alarming rate. Soon the whole world is talking about TY SATO, the doomsday asteroid, and life is turned upside down for Ty Sato, the boy, who would rather be playing hoops in his best friend's driveway. Meanwhile, aboard a silver spaceship heading for Earth, M'Frozza, a girl with three eyes and five nose holes, is on a secret mission. M'Frozza is the captain of planet Mrendaria's Galaxy Games team, and she is desperate to save her world from a dishonorable performance in the biggest sporting event in the universe.
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Publishers Weekly

Fishbone (The Penguins of Doom) fulfills every alien-obsessed kid's dream with this first book in the Galaxy Games series, about a pressure-filled cosmic challenge between 11-year-old Tyler Sato and M'Frozza, a cheerful squidlike Mrendarian. For his birthday, Tyler's Japanese relatives name a star--TY SATO--after him, which turns out to be a spaceship heading toward Earth. Tyler ends up captaining a team of top athletes from around the world to take on a manipulative team of Easter Islandesque statues in a complicated game of tic-tac-toe. Complemented by Beavers's comic book-style artwork, Fishbone's narrative is ripe with kid-friendly humor--i.e., Earth's radio and TV transmissions are picked up by the toilets on the Mrendarian ship--and many of the plot twists could be straight from the "what if" imaginings of a fourth-grade classroom. However, the story can be a little too jam-packed: a subplot involving a Japanese cousin doesn't feel pertinent, and inklings of tension between Tyler and his workaholic father simply disappear. Though Fishbone clearly sets up the next book, he gives Tyler enough of a victory to leave readers satisfied. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)

Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6--When Tyler Sato's Japanese relatives name a star after him for his 11th birthday, they set in motion a chain of events that will alter the course of the entire planet. The star is actually a Mrendarian spaceship on its way to Earth to engage in an intergalactic athletic challenge. The captain of its team, M'Frozza, believes that Tyler is Earth's greatest kid athlete and needs his help to avoid a humiliating forfeit in the Galaxy Games. Tyler is made captain of Earth's team and must select the top young athletes from around the globe to join him. Before they begin to train, he and his team are tricked into a challenge from another planet, and the consequences of a loss would be devastating. The first title in the series introduces a number of characters but is slow to develop the promised action. The first half alternates between Tyler in Nevada, M'Frozza on her spaceship, and Daiki, Tyler's cousin, in Tokyo. These shifts provide different perspectives on the impending encounter and introduce aspects of Japanese pop culture but may lose some readers who are waiting for the competition. Several plotlines run concurrently with most left dangling, presumably to be picked up later in the series. Black-and-white illustrations highlight characters and scenes in a comic-book style that complements the text. There is plenty of humor, and the revelation of the actual sport in the Galaxy Games will be an amusing twist for readers who stick with the story.--Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Greg Fishbone

Greg Fishbone serves as Assistant Regional Coordinator for the three New England chapters of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. In addition to the Galaxy Games series, he is also the author of the novel The Penguins of Doom. Greg grew up in Boston where he developed his love of sports, history, and clam chowder. After college, he attended law school in three countries, including Japan. He considered staying until he learned that the Japanese term for foreign attorney working in Japan, could also mean outhouse. This made for many awkward conversations including the line, I am studying hard and hope to become an outhouse someday. Practicing law by day and writing by night, Greg still hopes to become an outhouse someday. You can find out more about him at gregfishbone.com.

Classification
-
ISBN-13
9781600606601
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Tu Books
Publication date
September 15, 2011
Series
Galaxy Games
BISAC categories
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV053000 - Juvenile Fiction | Science Fiction
JUV032020 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | Basketball
Library of Congress categories
Extraterrestrial beings
Japanese Americans
Science fiction
Games
Cousins
Interplanetary voyages

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