This is a great series for kids who like Big Nate. As with BN, there are just as many illustrations as there is text.

It starts off with this: "If you're alive to read this book, you have me to thank. You're welcome."

As I read this I had no idea what it meant and to be honest I was pretty far into the book before I understood, which just proves that I have no sense of humor. But I DO appreciate humor.

Some other examples of text to give you an idea of Marty's character.
Pg. 3--"I'll start with the basics. My name is Marty Pants and I wear black. I heard somewhere that artists wear black. I didn't choose to be an artist. I was born that way."
Pg. 6--"My dad told me someone who doesn't understand art is a rube. Rube is now my favorite word. McPhee is a rube. He's supreme king, lord, emperor, and prime minister of the rubes. He doesn't understand anything creative, especially not a brilliant artist like me."
Pg. 82--"I have trouble sleeping. It's not because Jerome is on my head. He always does that. It's not because of the rainstorm outside. It's not because of the cracker crumbs in my bed, although that doesn't help. It's because my teacher is an alien who wants to annihilate Earth! And I happen to like Earth! I'm using it at the moment."

As you can see, Marty Pants is a pretty funny guy. He loves to draw, hence all the illustrations in the book. His sister, Erica is always changing the way she spells her name, so he spells it differently through the whole book. I thought that was clever. On pg. 16 his cat leaves him a partially chewed up note that says "an alien is observing you." Then he sees the word 'annihilate' on his teacher's computer and he assumes that his teacher is the alien observing him and he's going to destroy earth. Far fetched, but that's the way Marty's brain operates. The main plot of the book is Marty trying to expose McPhee as an alien. I recommend for ages 7-10. ( )