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Literature: Rod Albright Alien Adventures
aka: Aliens Ate My Homework

Also known as the Aliens Ate My Homework series.

A young adult series about a 12-year old that has a tiny spaceship crash into his room, and ends up helping the aliens on their mission.

Written by Bruce Coville in The Nineties, the series in chronological order is: Aliens Ate My Homework, I Left My Sneakers In Dimension X, The Search for Snout (or Aliens Stole My Dad if you live in the UK), and Aliens Stole My Body.

This series provides examples of:

Aliens Ate My Homework: See the title. It was actually the truth, but due to the circumstances, it came across as a Refuge in Audacity joke.
Alien Lunch: Grakker's people raise worms to eat.
Cannot Tell a Lie: Rod. That's why the first book is named such. (The one significant time he does lie (he lies at the end of the first book), near the end of the series, BKR sees through it.)
Evil Is Petty: BKR is implied to be Space Hitler and starts the book in his latest scheme — bullying children at an elementary school.
- It should be mentioned that according to the aliens, the worst possible crime is cruelty, because unlike other crimes which might have mitigating factors, if you're cruel, it's because you willingly choose to be.
Fantastic Honorifics: The "Tar" of Tar Gibbons is an honorific meaning "Wise and beloved master who could kill me with his little finger if he so wished."
Half-Human Hybrid: Rod and his siblings... sort of. Atlantean human/human, anyway.
"It" Is Dehumanizing: Rod points this out when the Tar asks to be referred to as 'it', but as it points out, it is neither male nor female, making the corresponding pronouns wrong and therefore insulting in their own right.
Plant Aliens: Phil is a (dead ringer for a) sunflower.
Punny Name: Phil O'Dendron.
Sarcastic Confession: By accident. "Aliens ate my homework" was the honest truth, but as Madame Pong pointed out, it was such a bizarre explanation that nobody could be expected to take it seriously.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: At one point, Arnie the school bully tries to have his dad sue Rod's mother, because Rod (with a little alien help) ducked his fist and he broke it against the school's wall. While there's no way that it would hold up in court, Rod's mother mentions that she can't afford the trouble.
Single-Biome Planet: Averted pretty hard, and lampshaded when Rod asks Grakker about his home.
Grakker: Do you come from a swamp planet?
Space Is Magic
Starfish Aliens
Steven Ulysses Perhero: BKR's alias on Earth is Billy Becker.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Due to the Bizarre Alien Biology of the Starfish Aliens
- Of the five alien crew members 2 that are roughly male, 1 female, 1 plant that uses male pronouns, and 1 with no equivalent in Earth's biology that considers male or female pronouns insulting. When Rod's cousin asks why there is only one female, she explains that the sheer diversity of species means they don't even pay attention to that kind of thing anymore.
Time Stands Still: BKR's ultimate goal.
Wham Episode: The final chapter of I Left my Sneakers in Dimension X reveals that Rod's absent father is an alien and a member of the Galactic Patrol.
Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The villain named BKR. Yes. That's his full name.