Marshmallow Martians: Museum Sleepover

Museum Sleepover is the third installment in the “Marshmallow Martians” junior graphic novel series concerning the curious band of Martian explorers and their adventures on Earth. This book begins with the Marshmallows on their home planet of Moop as their trusty computerized sidekick G.L.O.W. is shopping for a five dimensional scanner and printer. The group amusingly speculates about what they would scan and print with the device, their pitches including “an Earth child”, termites, different food items and eventually each other. The Marshmallows are then alerted to a contest held by the Association of Legendary Intergalactic Extraordinary Notions challenging participants to fill a display case provided with something unexpected, with the winner receiving the prize of a party held anywhere on Earth.

Quickly the Marshmallows snap into action, speculating that the best place to find something unique will be on Earth as many Moop residents will be entering the contest. The group eventually decides on the team name of G.O.O.P.Z. Squishy Adventures, creating the acronym from various qualities the team possesses (“ginormously”, “outrageous”, etc.). Scanning Earth for unique objects that would fit the display case, the team hits on many possibilities but eventually narrow it down to two things: dinosaurs and unicorns. With these in mind, the team debate where exactly to search on Earth, eventually deciding that a museum will house the things they’re looking for. Commenting on the ethics of taking something from a museum, G.L.O.W. clarifies that they will be scanning and printing a copy of the thing rather than stealing the museum’s.

With a location decided, the group transport to Earth through the portal P.E.E.P. to the Museum of Natural History, but sadly they arrive with only ten minutes left in the museum’s opening hours for the day. The guard then clarifies that, if the group is there for the sleepover, they can remain in the museum. The martians quickly get wise to the opportunity and state that they are, in fact, there for the sleepover. One of the children also taking part in the sleepover clarifies that unicorns don’t exist, but dinosaurs can be found in the museum. Unconvinced that unicorns truly don’t exist, the team decides to continue their search for both unicorns and dinosaurs, taking the museum keys from an unsuspecting guard to aid in their search. The team begins by looking through the Rocks and Gemstones wing of the museum, but, while there, they overhear an announcement about the guard’s missing keys.

Moving quicker to evade the suspicious guard, the group moves through the Egyptian wing next where they run into the child who earlier pointed out that unicorns are not real. The child clarifies that they found “a Siberian unicorn horn” in one of the display cases in the Egyptian section. The group cheerfully unlocks the display case to retrieve the horn and begins searching for the “rest of that unicorn”. Amongst the dinosaur bones, the team is, of course, unable to locate the unicorn but wreak havoc with the exhibits by attempting to reassemble loose dinosaur bones into a comprehensive skeleton. The group is quickly caught in the act by the guard who has been hunting them all night, and the group yells to G.L.O.W. to scan the dinosaur quickly so they can beat a hasty retreat. In the rush to escape, the child holding the unicorn horn is jostled and the horn conveniently lands atop the group’s assembled dinosaur skeleton, essentially inventing a “dinocorn”. Having achieved their mission and with the guard on their tail, the team hurriedly teleports back to safety on Moop. Back home, the team wins the contest handily with their rare Dinocorn display.

The creative duo of Deanna Kent and Neil Hooson return with the Marshmallow’s signature lighthearted humour and playful, rounded illustrations for an amusing junior graphic novel experience. As in previous books in the series, Marshmallow Martians: Show and Smell (www.cmreviews.ca/node/3568) and Marshmallow Martians: Earth School (www.cmreviews.ca/node/3750), the story is followed by a page instructing child readers on how to reproduce the drawings of their favourite characters.