A series of children's books written by Bruce Coville about an alien named Blork. In Blork's society, babies and children are generally silent and well-behaved, but Blork had a bit of eggshell lodged behind his ear after he hatched, and wouldn't stop crying. Because of this, the computers labeled him "brat", and ever since he's been considered a brat all over his planet.
As you can imagine, growing up the go-to scapegoat among his peers left poor Blork terribly resentful. When everyone decides to blame you if a class pet gets loose and eats the furniture, or someone carves a swear word in the wall with lasers, life can be rough. It's a good thing that Blork can live up to his reputation when necessary — by throwing the loudest, wildest, most explosive tantrums in the galaxy!
The series consists of five books:
- Space Brat (1992)
- Space Brat 2: Blork's Evil Twin (1993)
- Space Brat 3: The Wrath of Squat (1994)
- Space Brat 4: Planet of the Dips (1995)
- Space Brat 5: The Saber-Toothed Poodnoobie (1997)
This series provides examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Blork's tantrums, when no other options are present. He can throw them at will, but they're demonstrably more effective when he's legitimately hit his Rage Breaking Point.
- Abusive Alien Parents: Blork's species lays eggs and don't raise their own young. Rather, they have computers raise hatchlings instead.
- And the Adventure Continues: Book 5 ends with Blork and his friends, who've finally made it back to present-day Splat, deciding to head off into space for more adventures.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When the group finds themselves around the Planet of the Dips, Appus Meko doesn't want to go down because they could have all sorts of horrible things: "Huge monsters! Weird diseases! Schools that don't have summer vacation!"
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Bubbling Swamp on Splat is home to the giant orange fuzzygrumpers, the most ferocious beasts on the planet, which are big enough to hold a person in one hand. Book 2 has Blork, Lunk and Moomie Peevik having to fend one off when it comes after them; Blork finally beats it by shrinking it with the Atomic Miniaturizer Ray Gun.
- Author Appeal: Of an innocent sort — Bruce Coville, a former schoolteacher, adds features to the alien school system that are clearly idealized. In particular, it's considered common sense that no class can have more than 16 students, whereas in the current American system most classes have double or triple that number. Also, during a museum visit the teacher buys a "bubble of silence" which, when placed over someone's head, renders them mute.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The Dips from the fourth book. They're "happy, but sappy", and don't like to fight outside of food fights (specifically, the Trial by Skwishifroot"), but a few hundred of them wearing their propeller hats and working together are strong enough to pull a massive statue out of the ground where it's been buried for centuries.
- Big Friendly Dog: Lunk, and the canine-like Poodnoobies in general, who are big, sweet, lovable... and stupid.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Poodnoobies have three tongues, each with a different texture, including smooth and medium rough (the middle one).
- Bratty Half-Pint: Blork. Justified in this case, as it was a matter of "They always blame me for stuff because I was labelled "Brat" — so I may as well DO the stuff to begin with!"
- Brought Down to Normal: In book 1, when Blork's tantrums fail him three times in a row, something inside him breaks and he's unable to throw tantrums at will anymore. He gets his tantrum power back when Squat threatens Lunk, and proceeds to throw a dilly of a tantrum that suitably impresses the other being, who instead promises to free them both (though he's lying) in return for Blork teaching him how to throw a proper tantrum.
- The Bully: Appus Meko starts as one (and is at his absolute worst in book 2), but eventually undergoes character development and comes to be one of Blork's True Companions.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Splat is home to a dog-like species (albeit with purple fur, six legs and three tongues, which hatch from eggs) called poodnoobies.
- Cheek Copy: Variant in book 2 — while at the Museum of New Inventions, Blork finds what appears to be an ordinary copy machine in one room and starts making faces at its side (which is as reflective as a mirror). One face is so awful, he decides to make a copy of it, climbs onto the machine and hits the start button... which gets him dumped inside. Turns out the device was actually a "Complete Copier", which makes an exact duplicate of anything that gets put into it, and since it was set on Negative, Blork's Evil Twin Krolb is created as a result.
- Chekhov's Skill: The ability to throw tantrums ends up coming in handy.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land: The planet of the Dips, a race whose hat is mind-boggling stupidity.
- Cosmetic Award: Blork is offered a medal from the Big Boss of Splat for stopping Krolb. He asks for a more practical reward, a space scooter, instead (and gets it); in book 3, he's told he's been invited to the Galactic Celebration to receive a medal from the Grand High Fimbul for the same thing. He's finally given it by his fellow Splatoonians at the end of the series, since his adventures in space led to his missing the event.
- Destroy the Villain's Weapon: During the final clash between Blork and Squat in book 1, Blork snatches up Squat's ray gun and tosses it to a Thing, who promptly makes an awful face and bites the gun in half. Another Thing then picks Squat up and drops him out a window, causing him to leave. Later, they give Blork half the gun on a plaque as a gift as one of his going-away presents.
- Duck!: Variant in books 1 and 3.
- In book 1, the Things have brought Blork and Lunk into a massive castle, and say "Squat!" None of them squats though, leaving Blork confused until the Things' master, Squat, enters the room and introduces himself.
- In book 3, Blork, Lunk, Moomie Peevik, Blabber and Appus Meko have all been captured by a giant spaceship and Squat enters, causing Blork to exclaim "Squat!", to which a confused Moomie Peevik asks "Why?". Blork has to quickly explain that "Squat" is the man's name, not what they're supposed to do, before Squat interrupts.
- Evil Twin: When Blork gets into a complete copying machine in the second book, it makes a negative copy of him, named Krolb.
- Expy: Some of the character's names are a spoof of those from Star Wars.
- Book 4 features Old Bebop Kenoobie, a spoof of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Book 5 has Yoo-Hoo, a spoof of Yoda.
- Fat Best Friend: Lunk is a 350 pound Poodnoobie, and Blork's closest friend.
- Food Fight: Book 4 features the "Trial by Skwishifroot", essentially a food fight with rules where three Dips face one opponent wearing a white sash, both sides throwing Sqwishifroot at the other, and the sash-wearer must hit all three opposing Dips before one of them can get goo on the sash. When Blork actually loses the Trial, he promptly snaps and starts throwing his latest tantrum that gets pretty much the entire population involved in one big food fight, which they love, considering it the most fun they've had in ages.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Squat's plot in book 3 is to force one of these between Blork and Lunk, then send Lunk (in Blork's body) to accept a medal at the Galactic Celebration. Due to Lunk's personality, everyone who sees Lunk-in-Blork will think Blork is a slobbering, drooling fool, making him the laughingstock of the galaxy. It gets reversed by the end of the book.
- Fusion Dance: Blork and his evil twin Krolb fuse back into one by the end of book 2.
- Gasshole: Lunk, and all Poodnoobies in general, tends to burp a lot. In book 3, during his time in Lunk's body, Blork makes good use of this when he learns how to form his burps into actual words.
- Hat of Flight: In book 3, one resident of the Planet of Cranky People can be seen wearing a flying propeller hat in the illustrations, letting him hover just off the ground. Book 4 reveals that he stowed away on their ship, is named Skippy, and that they've ended up on his homeworld, where it turns out all the Dips wear them. Blork gets one later on in order to go some distance away and see the statue of Lord of Silliness, and gets another to take home at the end of the book.
- Jerkass: Squat, a diminutive space lord who fancies himself Blork's arch nemesis. Also pretty much everyone on the Planet of Cranky People.
- King Incognito: Skippy, the Grand High Dip, who doesn't like to advertise his status.
- Law of Alien Names: Played as straight as humanly possible.
- Literal-Minded: The Dips named a building "The Topless Tower of Timboobia". The "topless" part is because they forgot to put a roof on when they built it.
- Little Stowaway: Played with in book 4 — Skippy's a short adult rather than a kid, but he still manages to fit into a compartment of a ship leaving Snarf, the Planet of Cranky People. Also, he stowed away because he couldn't stand living on Snarf anymore, later explaining that he's "too cranky for [the Planet of the Dips], not cranky enough for that one".
- Lizard Folk: The creatures, or "Things", that Blork encounters in the first book in the series. They basically resemble humanoid stegosauruses.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Lunk for Blork, Blabber (from book 2's finale onward) for Moomie Peevick. It's apparently a rule that every child can have one pet (or in the case of Gitzels, three since they're so small) as long as they take care of it.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Pimento, who invents a brain-switching machine, among other things.
- Man Bites Man: During Blork's big tantrum (after he gets his tantrum powers back) near the climax of book 1, he bites Squat on the toe, which is part of what convinces Squat to ask Blork, for the second time, to teach him how to throw tantrums that wild.
- May the Farce Be with You: Book #4 (Planet of the Dips) spoofed this. Among other things, there is a Yoda-like hermit with a similar-sounding name (Old Bebop Kenoobie), and his advice to the main character is "Use the farce, Blork!" During the climax, Blork does indeed use the farce: when he loses his trial by Skwishifroot, he also loses his temper and throws a massive tantrum. The resulting skwishifroot fight causes the Dips to have more fun in one day than they have in years, and they offer him anything he wants — except his Poodnoobie back. Blork realizes this was the farce that Kenoobie had told him to use, and he figures out a reward that, once it's achieved, lets him keep Lunk after all.
- Mechanistic Alien Culture: The main aliens are stereotypical green humanoids with antennae who hatch from eggs. Their children are raised by computers and public officials, and many other elements of their society are highly impersonal.
- Negative Space Wedgie: An odd variant in books 4 and 5, in that it's accidentally manually triggered rather than simply something they ran into while wandering through space. Dr. Pimento, in fiddling with the wiring on Squat's ship (now Blork's), accidentally triggers a "Hyperspatial Transdimensional Whoopee Warp" that flings them fourteen squintillion miles out of their way. He later discovers the nexus of the Warp is in the exact spot where Skippy was hiding on their ship, which is what sent them to the planet of the Dips — the Warp takes you home. They end up having to have Appus Meko sit in the same spot before triggering the Warp again to send them back to Splat, only for Blabber to join him, resulting in their going back in time to prehistoric Splat.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: A variant in book 4. Skippy is easily the most intelligent of the Dips (which, along with his crankiness over said fact, is why he left his homeworld to escape the mind-boggling stupidity of the others). Of all the other Dips though, "Beezer the Brilliant" (the personal advisor to the Grand High Dip) is wearing one shoe, and he's known as "The Brilliant" because he's the only one who knows enough to wear anything over his socks.
- Overly Long Name: One of the residents of Snarf, the Planet of Cranky People, is revealed in book 4 to be named Skippy Dippy Ding-Dong Hooten Pooten Hopbong... the Third. (Which explains a lot about why he left his homeworld, as he grumbles.) He normally just goes by Skippy.
- Pet Baby Wild Animal:
- Zig-zagged with Lunk. Blork finds him as an unhatched egg in the wild, accidentally hatches him and ends up adopting him. Unlike most examples though, Lunk remains Blork's faithful animal companion throughout the series.
- Also zig-zagged with Blabber. First introduced as an adult giant Fuzzygrumper, he gets shrunk by Blork and tamed by Moomie Peevik, who takes him as her pet. Like Lunk, he stays with her for the rest of the series.
- Planet of Hats:
- Book 3 introduces Snarf, the Planet of Cranky People. Dr. Pimento is noted as having once fit in until he fiddled with his own brain and accidentally made himself pretty cheerful, which is why he leaves with Blork and co. at the end of book 3.
- Book 4 features the Planet of the Dips, home of some of the happiest and dumbest people in the galaxy. Their "Sacred Hall of Goofiness" even has a sign on its door that reads "Abandon All Common Sense, Ye Who Enter Here", and they're astounded that Blork and his friends can remember something until later without writing it down.
- Prehistoric Monster: Blork and company encounter many of these in the fifth book when they are warped backwards in time to Splat during its prehistoric state.
- Puff of Logic: Essentially how Blork defeats his evil twin in book 2 — he hits his Rage Breaking Point and starts throwing a tantrum, but since Krolb must act the opposite from Blork, this causes him to turn nice... and when a negative clone becomes totally positive, it causes the two to re-merge back into one.
- Punny Name: Book 3 has appearances by the school's principal "Yellin Bello" and his secretary "Tayka Ledder".
- Rage Breaking Point: Books 1-4 all have Blork hitting his and throwing a massive tantrum that ends up solving a lot of their current problems. Book 5 has a twist on it in that it's his friend, Moomie Peevik, who throws one in Blork's place in order to get him free.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Surprising for a Coville book. Blork's species is pretty much physically identical to humans except for their green skin, lack of a nose and antennae.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of book 1, after Blork refuses to obey him, his gun gets bitten in half and one of the Things drops him out a window, Squat decides he's had enough and is going home.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Book 2 features Blork's evil clone, Krolb, as one of the two main antagonists (and the only one actively malicious).
- Shout-Out:
- In book 2, Blork's classmates Brillig and Mimsy Borogrove are introduced. Both names are references to words in the poem Jabberwocky.
- Book 4 includes Star Wars references such as a character named "Old Bebop Kenoobie", who tells Blork to "Use the farce, Blork. Use the farce!"
- Shrink Ray: Featured in book 2, where the Atomic Miniaturizer Ray Gun is stolen by Blork's evil twin Krolb. He plans to shrink the whole city with it, but is stopped when he and Blork fuse back into one; Blork later uses it to save Moomie Peevik and Lunk via shrinking the giant Fuzzygrumper that was threatening them.
- Smashed Eggs Hatching: This trope is how Blork got his pet poodnoobie Lunk — in a flashback in the first book, Blork had run off into the Bubbling Swamp and found a poodnoobie nest with a single egg, surrounded by three broken shells (poodnoobies lay eggs in batches of four). Figuring its mother had abandoned it because the egg was no good, an angry Blork (who hates eggs in general and is especially mad at this one because it shouldn't even be an egg at this point) picks it up and throws it against a rock, causing it to hatch. Blork immediately regrets his anger and runs over to find a healthy baby poodnoobie, who becomes his best friend and loyal companion.
- Tantrum Throwing: It's practically Blork's special power. Initially he just did it for attention and to get his way, but it's become key to solving some major problems in his life... such as dealing with Squat, stopping his evil twin and saving his friends.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Blork was labeled by the computer nanny as a brat soon after hatching from his egg, all due to his having a piece of shell stuck behind his antenna and crying in pain because of it (it eventually fell off so he was no longer in pain, but he was left permanently cranky because he'd never gotten the right amount of sleep for a Splatoonian baby). Since then, he was the boy who cried wolf, and constantly marked as an easy person to stick the blame on. After putting up with it for a while, he winds up throwing a temper tantrum at how unfair it all was, which was unheard of for his species. Which then gives him a very easy out for whenever he gets blamed for something from then on, leading to this trope.
- Took a Level in Badass: Squat in the third book is much more of a genuine threat. Also, he Dual Wields laser guns and has three more on his belt, having learned from his mistake of having just one in his first appearance.
- Unstoppable Rage: Seriously. Blork's rage is astronomic. It has altered landforms and changed entire societies' interstellar outlook.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Poodnoobies have six legs.
- Whoopee Cushion: Book 4 includes "The Whoopee Cushion of Glory", located in the Sacred Hall of Goofiness on the Planet of the Dips.
