Maktel staggered to his feet. "It wasn't Chris that Ellicovec Bur wanted-it was us!"
Cold with terror, we stared at each other as Ellicovec Bur's ship picked up speed.
I heard Pleskit counting. "Thirty-seven," he whispered, "thirty-eight, thirty-nine." His shoulders slumped.
"That's it," he said softly. "We've just left Earth."
I shivered in terror.
We had been snatched into space!
The story of what happened to Tim, Pleskit, Linnsy, and Maktel after Ellicovec Bur's ship blasted off will be concluded in Book 8 of I WAS A SIXTH GRADE ALIEN:.
SNATCHED FROM EARTH.
A Glossary of Alien Terms Following are definitions for the alien words and phrases appearing for the first time in this book.
Definitions of extraterrestrial words used in earlier volumes ofIWas a Sixth Grade Alien can be found in the book where they were first used.
For most words we are only giving the spelling. In actual usage many would, of course, be accompanied by smells and/or body sounds.
The number after a definition indicates the chapter where the word first appears.
A complete glossary ofall the alien words used in theI Was a Sixth Grade Alien series can be found at www.brucecoville.com.
borznik(plural: borznikki):A fruit grown on Ur-Borz-Ikl 5 and exported throughout the galaxy. Like all exported foods, it can be copied by replicators, or grown on any planet in reproduced conditions.
But, as is also true of exotic foods, true gourmets say they can tell the difference. Borznikki are prized as much for their appearance-each ugly green fruit looks as if it has a face-as their taste. Trueborznikkifans love to compete with tales of the ugliest fruit they ever ate.
faelenga:A kind of gemstone formed in the digestive system of theakl-bing, a ferocious waterbeast that roams the oceans of Skatwag 6. The stones actually annoy the beasts, which try desperately to cough them up. Divers brave enough to enter anakl-bing 's nest can make a fortune from a single stone. (Alas, thesefaelenga-harvesters tend to have a very short life span.) feebo beezbuds:Hevi-Hevian candy of extraordinary sweetness and caloric value; the recipe was first devised by Feebo Poylinga, legendary candy-maker to Glikksa the Fool. The sweet is widely considered to be the only good thing to come out of the tragic period when Glikksa ruled Hevi-Hevi with unprecedented (and never duplicated) stupidity.
fushloob:hopeless idiotgeezbo: (vulgar) butt, hind end gerts
glorptious:An expression of delight having to do with how good it feels to squish mud through the toes of your bare feet.
orklit:Nonsense word used as an insult by children on Hevi-Hevi.
peevlik(plural: peevlikki):A tiny animal found in the northern wampfields of Hevi-Hevi. Traveling at night, apeevlik will sneak into the nostril of a large beast-usually aplonkus or aherklump -where it may then live for the next several years.Peevlikki have become synonyms for annoying sneakiness.
poozlit:A small green coin, often given to Hevi-Hevian children to mark a special occasion, such as their Hatching Day or as a reward for learning a particularly difficult fart.
quoink-zoopl:Small, hard-shelled creatures that have a fierce sense of territory. Their parental units separate the males, which usually come in sets of three, immediately after they hatch. If they are not separated they will instantly begin to fight, and only one will be left alive by the end of the day.
tigloop:A wormlike creature, two or three inches long, that likes to shelter in small holes, such as a nostril or an ear canal. If atigloop enters a nostril already occupied by apeevlik there will be a fight, which can be quite distressing to the owner of the nostril.
urkle-pidspoo:A high-protein snack made from ground-up fish heads. It is often claimed that the snack, which is quite spicy, will improve brain functioning. However, there is no actual proof that this is so.
urpelli:A warp in time/space that will propel any object that enters it a vast distance almost instantly. The analogy that teachers on Hevi-Hevi often use is that it is like having a door in your bedroom that opens onto another planet. This, however, does not take into account that any object not properly prepared and shielded for anurpelli jump will arrive at the other side in several million pieces.
vec:A term of relationship, signifying that two beings are linked in a permanent symbiotic union. Galacticscientists have cataloged over three hundred and fifty different kinds ofvec relationship among intelligent beings.
veccir(plural: vecciri):The collective word for two or more beings merged in a symbiotic union.
yeeble:indeterminate pronoun, very useful when a speaker does not know if the thingyeeble is speaking of is a he, a she, an it, or any of the other seven generally recognized genders. Standard Galactic, though it is also in common use in the local language of Hevi-Hevi.
About the Author and the Illistrator BRUCE COVILLE, the author of more than seventy-five books for young readers, was born inSyracuse,New York . He grew up in a rural area north of the city, around the corner from his grandparents' dairy farm, where he often dreamed of traveling to other planets. His favorite writers included Hugh Lofting, Eleanor Cameron, and (a little later) Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In the years before he began making his living as a writer, Bruce worked as a gravedigger, a toymaker, an elementary-school teacher, and a magazine editor (among other things). Now he mostly writes, but also spends a fair amount of time traveling to speak at schools and conferences. He also produces and directs unabridged recordings of fantasy novels for children.
Bruce and his wife, Katherine, live in an old brick house inSyracuse , which they share with a number of strange animals and whichever of their three children happens to be home at the moment.
Bruce's best-known books includeMy Teacher Is an Alien, Goblins in the Castle, andThe Skull of Truth.
TONY SANSEVERO received his art education fromBoston 's Massachusetts College of Art. He has illustrated several picture books and teen novels, and is an award-winning fine artist as well. He lives inSyracuse,New York , with a menagerie of weird animals and his collection of sci-fi toys.