The taunting title gets at both the book's improbability and insanity. In this comical debut novel, narrator 14-year-old David Gershwin is spending the summer with his "famous therapist" father (his parents are divorced) in a village 100 miles from Paris. He becomes intrigued with a patient named Zelda, who was caught stealing food. It took four policemen to immobilize her. Zelda insists she's from Vahalal and has come to Earth to find her "chosen one" and bring him back to her planet. After Zelda knocks out David's father and escapes, Dr. Gershwin sends David back to his mother's in Paris. But Zelda stows away in the trunk of the car.
Gary Ghislain makes the premise plausible enough to believe that Zelda truly is from another planet. Others besides David witness examples of her superhuman strength and her talent for Space Splashing ("the ability to be at two points in space at the same time"). Zelda shows David on the Internet that her chosen one is none other than Johnny Depp. But the only way she can find out for sure is to "sample" his DNA. She demonstrates on David--a French kiss. He's a goner. Once a bond forms between David and Zelda, the narrator's stakes are high. So we believe (at the very least) that he believes these things are happening to him. This book should be in the hands of every teen male reader, regardless of whether or not he likes to read. And female readers will find a superhero champion in Zelda. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor