Due to having read this third book in the Star Scouts series several months (if not closer to a year) apart, there were a few things I had forgotten from the previous two (mostly it was names of some of the scouts and embarrassingly, one character altogether). However, it is easy to pick back up as The Invasion of the Scuttlebots is not overly complicated. It is a delightful story of friendship, scouting and aliens that Mike Lawrence has created.
The galactic friendships between a two human girls and alien scouts bubbles into one large can of worms when jealousy, some crazy robots and bad pop songs (I mean, think of the worst popstar you can think of and times it by 10) come to a head. Our Star Scouts not only have to try and save old friendships and try and create new friendships, but they also have to save Earth from Robots that look like Skinny Mint Scout cookie boxes!
The elements of humor, really bad puns and adventure mix into a fun series for ages 8 to 10. Cliches (puberty hitting one of our alien friends) do come up, but that is important to the overall story. The ending, while somewhat obvious, was what was needed to wrap the storyline up. The adult in me felt the book was a bit rushed in places, but the kid in me was excited to read along.
The illustrations are typical comic/graphic novel with bold colors, minimal (but what is needed) details. The panels are set up for easy flow, and many times the action cannot be contained in one. There is a sketchbook/scrapbook at the end that gives a little background to the history of the design of the character. As well as a surprise piece of information about how two characters came to life (no magic hat required).
