Written and illustrated by Mark Crilley, Akiko chronicles the 4th graderīs adventures on the planet Smoo. Along with her out-of-this-world friends (the space cowboy Spuckler, the bookish Mr. Beeba, the robot Gax and the enigmatic Poog), Akiko goes shopping for a new moon in the Farflux Dimension, saves the Prince of Smoo from the wrath of his evil kidnapper, Loza Throck, and gets stranded in modern-day Japan. Akiko is a great book for little girls because "thereīs not any of the teen angst about what should I wear, or what will my friends think about me," said Sharon Olson, owner of Diversions in Biloxi, Miss.