Henry P. Baloney is late for school on Tuesday — again — and his teacher, Miss Bugscuffle, has had it. “That’s it . . . Permanent Lifelong Detention . . . unless you have one very good and very believable excuse.” Needless to say, Henry, a little guy from another planet with a very large, very active imagination, has no shortage of excuses, which he rolls into one incredible adventure. Jon Scieszka’s “decoding” of Henry’s account (he writes in an afterword that the transmission came directly from deep space) is a delightful blending of a child’s fanciful storytelling and wordplay in which many of the nouns in English have been replaced with words from other languages. Why was Henry late? He misplaced his zimulus (pencil) and ended up in a razzo (rocket) heading toward the planet Astrosus (unlucky). The meaning of the words can usually be understood by their context and by the clues in Lane Smith’s amusing illustrations, which were created, it is noted, by a “machine-assisted human, and/or human-assisted machine.” A “decoder” at the end of the story gives the language of origin and literal meaning for all of the non-English words. One of Molly Leach’s dynamic design elements includes printing those words in a different color from the rest of the text. This book can set the stage for more creative storytelling and playful encounters with language. (Ages 6–10)

The twisted team that gave the world Squids Will Be Squids and The Stinky Cheese Man now delivers a whole lot of Baloney. Henry P. Baloney. Henry is an alien schoolkid who needs to come up with one very good excuse to explain why he is late for szkola, again. Otherwise, his teacher Miss Bugscuffle promises, it's Permanent Lifelong Detention.

Henry's tall tale of his lost zimulis-received from deep space by Jon Scieszka-is told in at least twenty different Earth languages and graphically recreated in Lane Smith's out-of-this-world illustrations.

The unbelievable trip into Henry's wild universe may be the most original excuse ever for being late for szkola. Or it might just be Baloney. Henry P. Baloney.