HAZEL NUTT, ALIEN HUNTER

Hazel Nutt returns for another adventure. This time, she’s an alien hunter zooming through the cosmos in her spaceship, BoobyPrize. Caught in a “meateor” shower (meatballs, you understand), she makes an emergency landing on the planet Wutt. Following an Abbott-and-Costello exchange as she tries to uncover the name of the planet, Hazel discovers she has landed on the Wutties’s leader. She feels awful and makes amends by giving them her ladder before blasting off—unknowingly freeing their little lady leader. Elliott’s story is nonsensical goofiness. No explanations are given for the meatball meteors or Hazel’s “alien hunter” status, and there’s no reason given why the ladder has a palliative effect on the Wutties. Everything exists for visual and verbal puns. Kelley’s wiggly watercolors are a good match and the main strength here. Readers with sophisticated enough senses of humor might enjoy hunting for the visual puns. Not for everyone, but fans of the first will likely be pleased. (Picture book. 4-8)