History Literature / RodAllbrightAlienAdventures

* TranslatorMicrobes: The language implants used by the crew to speak English (though they don't seem to be perfect). Rod, Seymour and Elspeth also get them so they can speak Standard Galactic.

* AlienLunch:
** Tar Gibbons likes to grab little flying bugs out of the air for his snacks.
** In book 2, while being held in Castle Chaos, Rod and Elspeth are fed a horrible-looking mess that appears to be mostly plant parts. The "best-tasting" thing is a red sphere described as tasting like a mixture of chocolate and olives seasoned with mucus.
** On the other hand, Dimension X is also home to ''kispa-dinka'', which resembles boiled macaroni and grows in the sky. When Rod finally tastes it, he finds it sweet and slightly spicy, and quite enjoys it.
** Book 3 reveals that Grakker's people raise worms to eat. Later in the book, Rod is mentioned to have found a couple of alien dishes he likes, including scrambled squibbish, which resembles "moldy rat tails sauteed in eyeball sauce". Elspeth, when convinced to try it, says it "tastes like chicken".
** Book 4 includes a vegetable that resembles a purple potato... but it moves on its own and has to be "killed" before it can be eaten. (Cutting it in half is sufficient, and it doesn't make any noise.)

* FantasticLivestock: Giant worms are commonly ranched for [[AlienLunch food]] in Galactic society. Captain Grakker tells a queasy Earthling that consuming animals as intelligent as cows and pigs is [[YourNormalIsOurTaboo just as offputting]] to them.

* HumanMomNonhumanDad: Mother is human; father is... well, actually human as well. Thing is, he's an ''Atlantean'' human, off a different genetic road.

* AnAlienNamedBob: Phil the sunflower-looking {{Plant Alien|s}} has the only human-sounding name among the alien crew of the ''Ferkel''.

* NotSoDifferent: Despite coming from the same utopian society as the good aliens, BKR has the same barbaric traits humans are accused of having, and he proves himself to be far worse than any Earth-based species.

A live-action film based on the series was released on March 6, 2018.

* BittersweetEnding: BKR is ultimately stopped, the Allbright family is finally united, and Rod will even be able to return to space in the future. [[spoiler:However, the entire Ferkel crew must stand trial going against the Galactic Patrol's orders, and their ultimate fate is left up in the air, though they state that their [[ToBeLawfulOrGood finally bringing BKR to justice as a result of disobeying orders]] will also be taken into consideration.]]
* BizarreAlienSexes: Tar Gibbons, as seen below:
-->'''Gibbons''': I am neither male nor female. I'm a farfel.

-->'''Gibbons''': Actually, it's more like a ''pippik'' than anything.
* BondCreatures: According to Seymour, a Chibling's first life directive is to find and bond to the first sapient creature they encounter. After that, they're partners for life, or until so firmly rejected that they give up and die.
* BrickJoke: The ''title itself'' of ''I Left My Sneakers in Dimension X'' is this. It takes until the very end of the book before we learn what it means. [[spoiler:After giving his stylish new sneakers to the giant, Spar Kellis, which he got not long before the book began, Rod simply shrugs and remarks to himself that after everything that happened, the fact that he left his sneakers in Dimension X should be the least of his mom's worries.]]
* CannotTellALie: Rod. That's why the first book is named such. The one significant time he ''does'' lie, at the end of the first book, BKR sees through it.
* CoolStarship: Pretty much all of them, but special note goes to Ah-rit's ship, the ''Jean'' (named for his wife), which is described as sleek and powerful.

* DisappearedDad: Rod's father left his family three years before the first book under mysterious circumstances, and hasn't been heard from since. [[spoiler:It's because he got word that BKR was on his way to Earth and fled the planet to keep certain crucial information out of his hands.]]
* ADogAteMyHomework: Or rather, "Aliens ate my homework." It was actually the truth (specifically, Grakker had decided a piece of paper in Rod's desk - which, as it turned out, was the math assignment due that day - would make a good snack), but due to the circumstances, it came across as a RefugeInAudacity joke.
* EasilyImpressed: The twins, being only three, are this. Rod notes that they react with awe just from things like flashing lights or equipment that makes noise during their tour of the ''Ferkel''.
* EldritchLocation: Dimension X, home of Reality Quakes, a portal network and a layer of macaroni-like stuff that naturally grows in the sky.

** It should be mentioned that according to the aliens, the worst possible crime is [[ForTheEvulz cruelty]], because unlike other crimes which might have mitigating factors, if you're cruel, it's because you willingly choose to be - and BKR is pretty much TheSociopath.
* ExtraDimensionalShortcut: At some point in the distant past, someone discovered a means of skipping between dimensions as a means of reducing travel time, and it's now the norm for space travel.
* FantasticHonorifics: The "Tar" of Tar Gibbons is an honorific meaning, roughly, "Wise and beloved warrior who can kill me with his little finger if he should should so desire."
* ForTheEvulz: Everything BKR does is for this, such as his plan to merge our dimension with Dimension X and his later plan to freeze time. Grakker notes in both cases that BKR is well aware that he would be affected just like everyone else, but as long as he can hurt people, he just doesn't care. And in the latter case, when time stops forever, he'll be frozen at the exact moment of his greatest triumph.

* ItTastesLikeFeet: In book 3, while Rod is traveling on the ''Ferkel'', he and Madame Pong try to program the ship's food system with things that are edible to humans. Color and texture are easy, but taste is not, and Rod specifically mentions that its first attempt at chocolate chips tastes like "a combination of chicken, blueberries, and earwax". He then notes that he's just guessing on the last part - he's never actually tasted earwax. "But this stuff had a bizarre and horrible undertaste, and that's as good a way to describe it as any."

* LivingMacGuffin: [[spoiler:Rod's brain contains the final component BKR needs to complete his Time Bomb.]]

* SharingABody: [[spoiler: Rod winds up doing this with Seymour for the last chapter or so of ''The Search for Snout'' and much of ''Aliens Stole My Body''. During this time, he finds he can temporarily seize control of their shared body, but only does it in an emergency - i.e., when others' lives are at stake. He gets his own body back in the next-to-last chapter of the latter book.]]
* ShrinkRay: Nearly all starships seen in the series are equipped with these, letting them go to a smaller size and back. The ''Ferkel'' goes from bigger than a house to about two feet wide when it's shrunk; if used on a person, they're anywhere from one to four inches high, depending on their natural height (two inches is the default; Smorkus Flinders could only be brought down to four due to his naturally immense size, and the three-year-old Allbright twins were down to one inch due to their naturally ''small'' size).

* StarfishAliens: The cast includes Tar Gibbons (member of a multi-gendered species), Phil the Plant, and Edgar/Seymour (member of a symbiont species which splits into two bodies as part of its life cycle). On the psychological side, Captain Grakker uses a computerized implant to experience different moods. Known modules include "diplomatic", "docility", "berserk", "battle" (which Tar Gibbons thinks is poorly programmed), "judicial" and "open mind". A "patience" module is also mentioned, and apparently they had more than one of it on hand - Madame Pong notes early in ''The Search For Snout'' that she needs to requisition a new one, because Grakker's short-circuited his way through their entire inventory.
* StevenUlyssesPerhero:
** BKR's alias on Earth is Billy Becker.
** Ah-rit Alber Ite changed his name to Arthur "Art" Allbright when he settled on Earth.

** Of the five alien crew members, two are roughly male, one female, one plant that uses male pronouns, and one with no equivalent in Earth's biology that considers male or female pronouns insulting. When Rod's cousin asks Madame Pong why there is only one female, she explains that the sheer diversity of species and genders means they don't even pay attention to that kind of thing anymore.

* TimeStandsStill: [[spoiler:BKR's ultimate goal]].
* TitleDrop: Both "Aliens ate my homework" and "I left my sneakers in Dimension X" appear in dialogue or narration of the first two books. Averted with books 3 and 4 though.
* {{Ultraterrestrials}}: In ''The Search for Snout'', Rod believes his DisappearedDad was an alien, but upon meeting him in space, finds out that he's a scientist from {{Atlantis}} who traveled into space before it fell, became immortal, and had adventures on alien worlds before returning to live on Earth (and then he disappeared to keep his family safe from BKR).

* YouAreNotReady:
** When Rod asks why Earth has not been asked into the League of Planets, he's told that humans are considered warlike and borderline insane by the other species of the cosmos.
** We learn in ''The Search for Snout,'' however that the League of Planets only emerged after 1000 years of war between its future member species, so that might be a bit of hypocrisy.

''Rod Allbright Alien Adventures'', also known as the ''Aliens Ate My Homework'' series, is a children's series written by Creator/BruceCoville in TheNineties. It tells the story of sixth-grader Rod Allbright, whose life is changed forever when a tiny spaceship crashes into his room and he's recruited to help its occupants in their mission of capturing an intergalactic criminal who's been hiding on Earth for some time.

* FantasticHonorifics: The "Tar" of Tar Gibbons is an honorific meaning "Wise and beloved warrior who could kill me with his little finger if he so wished."