Baxter Moon Galactic Scout

John Zakour
Brown Barn Books (2008)
ISBN 9780976812692
Reviewed by Ian McCurley (age 14) for Reader Views (5/08)

“Baxter Moon: Galactic Scout” takes place in the future, when humans have recently discovered the first two intelligent forms of life besides ourselves.  It begins on a space station where scouts are being trained.  After winning a video game contest, Baxter Moon received a full scholarship to the Galactic Academy of Scouts.  Now he is in training, along with his squad mates, one of which is technologically intelligent, the other is strong and more mechanically oriented.  Their squad leader is a genetically improved chimpanzee.  When the devious TVtrons kidnap a ship full of human and aquan diplomats, the unarmed scouts are sent in to stop a war.  On the ship they meet a beautiful Princess and are almost killed by re-programmed robots.  Now they must free the prisoners, survive the TVtrons assault and avert a war.

In “Baxter Moon: Galactic Scout” John Zakour writes with excellence.  His book has a solid plot and conveys a humorous mood. Not only is this book funny, but is funny in a way that children will understand.  His previous work with Nickelodeon can be seen in his humor.  This book is for those who are of 12 years of age or younger and enjoy books about space or talking monkeys.

Reviewed by Matthew Feliciano (age 7) for Reader Views (3/08)

“Baxter Moon Galactic Scout” is about a boy named Baxter Moon.  Baxter is a galactic scout on his first mission.  His boss is a chimpanzee named GiS.  Baxter does not like taking direction from a monkey.  He also does not like to cooperate with adults too much.  His simulations of missions don’t always go well because he makes his own choices and does not listen to his officers.  

I liked Baxter but he did use bad language too much (blooping was used as a swear word).  That is not a good character for kids.  I liked that he thought on his own even if it didn’t always work out. 

I did not really like “Baxter Moon Galactic Scout” too much.  It did not keep my interest because the story was way too slow and there was too much happening at once that did not always make sense.  I could not always understand what was happening in the story with so many things going on at one time.  It is hard to like a book if you can’t understand it.

**Parent note: I read this book with Matthew and agree with his opinion. I found it to be difficult to follow, and it did not keep either of our interest.  As a parent, I also kept editing out the main character’s use of “blooping”.  It was clearly used in place of a more traditional swear word and I was not happy to see a main character in a juvenile book using this language. 

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