My kids loved it! 
This was the first chapter book that I read to my kids ages 6.5 and 4. The name alone is funny. The kids wondered how a robot was invented by Ricky Ricotta. This was probably explained in one of the earlier ones. It is truly a funny book as Dav Pilkey books are absolutely hysterical. All of his books seem to provide adult humor and loads of play on words. The trouble starts when Ricky Ricotta is forced by his parents to go to his cousin Lucy's house. Her parents are overly loving to him. His uncle hurts Ricky with very strong handshakes. His aunt attacks with a million kisses. EEKK! Typical boy, to think of this as a real annoyance. His cousin only wants to play Princess and other girly games. She has 3 Jurassic pets. I am not sure about how they are alive. I guess this was in one of the earlier books too. The stinkbugs live on Saturn a really dirty and polluted planet. It is ruled by a Stinkbug leader who cannot even live on such a disgusting planet. He decides that he will rule over the Planet Earth. His cousin yells about her Rubies. This is when the stinkbugs want to capture her for the Rubies. They decide that she must be the ruler of Earth and they must have her. Ricky Ricotta tries to come to the rescue with his friendly robot. This does not work and Ricky himself is captured. They feel doomed. Yet, Ricky turns out to be the hero and it is a happy ending for the readers. My kids loved the short chapters. I thought that they would not like the books because of the black and white photos but it was simple like coloring pages without the colorings. The words in the story were easy enough for my kids to understand. It was a great adventure. I thought that my daughter, age 4, would be lost and not care about a main character that was a male mouse. She loved it. It was something different. They love Dav Pilkey books but this was an adventure book. I must incompetent but this book comes with a section called Flip-O-Rama. I could not make it work. I think a kid can do a better job! My son loved the way the Stinkbug lost the battle. I enjoyed the book and plan on reading the first books as this is the sixth. I am sure that it does not matter if we go to the first one after reading this one. Each book can be read separately without needing the previous books. Kids can relate to playing pretend, aunts and uncles who love too much, and who have bad guys and good guys. One more point, Ricky Ricotta wears glasses. So many books do not show glasses especially for the main character. This is a must read and a great way to introduce chapter books. Enjoy!
December 02, 2003 | 
