Dear Flyary by Dianne Young
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story is a whimsical window into the life of Frazzle Pattzer, a being from the Glank Quadrant of Merfatil who speaks English sprinkled with a patois of made-up words direct from the author’s quirky imagination. If you invited Frazzle to your home, he would call your television a “seebox,” and if it was your birthday he would sing, “Gladdy dropday to you.” Frazzle has friends, a job, and plenty to do, but he finds time regularly to write in his diary (“Flyary”). And it’s a good thing he does. Otherwise, how would we know that his first spaceship was a Model 7?

One day Frazzle’s beloved spaceship starts making strange noises. Will he ditch it for the Model 8 everyone’s talking about? This delightful story is pure joy from beginning to end, and fun to read aloud. The made-up words will inspire many readers, adult and child alike, to make up words of their own. Teachers using this book in a classroom can use the new words to talk about where words come from in the first place, and examine why the meanings of the made-up words can be determined from the context of the story. John Martz’s illustrations invoke a real sci-fi feel in a cartoon-ishly delightful way. They are rich in detail and will make you smile, even if you’re not having a “giddy” day. In other words, the story is “flixsome.”