SkippyJon Jones: Lost in Spice Review By: Ayisha Hernandez

SkippyJon Jones: Lost in Spice (Fantasy)

Schachner, Judy. (2009). SkippyJon Jones: Lost in Spice. New York, New York: Scholastic,

Inc.

SkippyJon Jones is a cat who thinks he is a Chihuahua. He is obsessed with Mars, mainly because it is the color red. One day he asks his mother for her red spice. He plans to use the spice to help him create his own red planet in his bedroom so he can go on an adventure to space.  He ends up going to Mars through his closet and meets up with his friends in space. The chihuahua dogs who call themselves the Chimichangas, influence Skippyjon to try to get the chili powder from Mars because it is the best chili powder in the universe. Skippyjon ends up getting separated from his friends and meets a green Martian who looks very similar to him named Uno Ojo. Skippyjon asks the Martian to watch his stuff, including his sock monkey while he goes to look for his friends. When Skippyjon returns, he finds Uno Ojo with his sock monkey and more martian friends have joined him. Now Skippyjon needs to get back his monkey and head back home.

Although I enjoyed the multicultural aspect of this book through the use of Spanish throughout the story, I felt a bit like the storyline was all over the place. Skippyjon Jones is a series book character and this book is not the first book in the series. Most of the time authors of series books attempt to catch the reader up on important information before continuing on with the next story. The author did let us know that Skippyjon is a cat who thinks he is a dog, but didn’t really connect that Skippyjon was able to go on adventures through his closet. I’m not sure if this is something he can or has done in previous books. As the story goes on, it does have some funny parts, but the ending seemed a bit rushed. He was in the middle of this problem and then “Boom!” it is solved and the story is over. Quite abrupt and not well-liked by me. This book seems to be aimed towards children from Kindergarten to Second Grade. I would say some Third Graders might enjoy this book as a read aloud.