One night in the late 1980s, author Pamela Service sat down with anticipation (and snacks) to watch a science fiction movie on television. But soon after it began, Service realized that the movie would disappoint her. It had the same, tired old plot: aliens enter the bodies of humans to take over the world, but no one notices! Disgusted, Service began to think about what would happen if, instead of inhabiting human bodies, visiting aliens inhabited the bodies of animals. Service kept thinking about her idea, and after she and her family encountered a "large, odoriferous skunk," she developed the story which would become her most popular novel: Stinker from Space. The book, according to Betsy Hearne of Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, is a "first-class, funny science fantasy that will hook middle- grade readers right from the first scene."

After the publication of Stinker from...