Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century

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Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century
Zenon - Girl of the 21st Century (book cover).jpg
Author Marilyn Sadler
Illustrator Roger Bollen
Genre Science fiction, Young adult fiction
Publisher Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication date
1997
Pages48
ISBN 978-0-689-80514-1

Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century is a 1997 children's science fiction picture book written by Marilyn Sadler and illustrated by Roger Bollen. It tells the story of Zenon Kar, a girl in the year 2049 who lives on a space station in the Milky Way. [1] She is sent to her aunt on Earth to keep her out of trouble. She spends the summer on her grandparents' farm, learning their "old-fashioned" chores in their low-tech life. References in the novel are inspired by well-known science fiction characters. [2]

Contents

In 1999, the book was adapted into a television film as the Disney Channel Original Movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century . [3]

First edition

Series

The Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century series includes five books: [4]

Zenon's mischievous ways land her on Earth; while spending an entire summer at her grandparents' farm, she becomes a wiser and more mature person...gaining an appreciation for manual labor, and even helping to raise a litter of puppies.

Zenon is the only kid on Space Station 9 left without a Tobo: a robotic pet which can talk, fly, and even do homework. Instead, Zenon's dad buys her a cheap knockoff called a Bobo, which can't do homework or even talk! However, Bobo's loyalty compensates for his lack of intelligence...especially when an otherworldly phenomenon has all the Tobos going berserk and attacking their owners.

After sitting on the bench all season, Zenon finally gets her chance to play spaceball when Grebba - the star of Space Station 9's team - is unable to participate in the championship game against Earth's team.

Zenon agrees to entertain Teena, the well-behaved and polite daughter of an eminent Earth scientist. At least, she seems polite and well-behaved. Actually, Teena's idea of fun means breaking just about every rule she trips over...mostly because it's there. How will Zenon survive a girl who's basically herself to the tenth power?

Zenon and her friend Nebula sneak away from a class field trip to Earth, so that the girls can enter Zenon's latest invention - Galaxy Glue - in the 34th Annual World Science Fair at Cleveland, Ohio. En route, the girls are beset by numerous complications.

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References

  1. "Zenon : girl of the 21st century - North Texas Library Consortium". North Texas Library Consortium. Retrieved 2022-05-07. Because Zenon creates trouble at her space station home somewhere in the Milky Way, her parents send her to her grandparents' farm on Earth to work for the summer.
  2. "Children's Book Review: Zenon: Girl of the Twenty-First Century by Marilyn Sadler". 1996-05-01. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  3. Erickson, Hal (2014). "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2014-12-20. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  4. "Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century series by Marilyn Sadler". Goodreads. Retrieved 2016-03-02.