Zenon: Girl of the Twenty-First Century

From Publishers Weekly Traditional values inform this outer-space-age story, set a mere 40 years hence. Zenon?dressed in black, with hot-pink moon boots and a gravity-defying hairstyle?lives on a space station, talks on the video-phone and skates on a wheel-less "hoverboard." Her parents disapprove of her earsplitting music and mischievous deeds, however, and they decide to bring her down to earth?literally. Zenon goes to spend the summer at her grandparents' terrestrial farm, where she does chores the old-fashioned way (by hand) and learns "to enjoy the comforting tick of the clock" while playing checkers. An adult sort of wishful thinking colors Zenon's transformation, but high-tech kids will probably appreciate Zenon's difficulty in adapting to a low-tech pace. Wife-and-husband team Sadler and Bollen (Alistair in Outer Space) take inspiration from well-known TV shows and movies: Zenon operates a Jetsons-like robot vacuum, a Star Trekky "Captain Quirk" pilots the space station and a kid from the Crab Nebula resembles The Empire Strikes Back's Yoda. The overall effect is more conventional than futuristic, but Bollen's droll cartoons complement Sadler's tongue-in-cheek narration. Ages 5-9. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.