Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury

Ricky Ricotta #2

by Dav Pilkey, Martin Ontiveros (Illustrator)

When the world is invaded by Mutant Mosquitoes, there is only one pair of heroes to turn to--Ricky Ricotta and his large sidekick, Robot.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Chapter Books, Graphic Novels, Adventure, Science Fiction, Humor

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

David "Dav" Pilkey (b. March 4, 1966), is a popular children's author and artist. Pilkey is best known as the author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants book series. He lives near Seattle, Washington with his wife, Sayuri.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricky Ricotta's mighty robot is a little boy's action adventure fantasy distilled to near perfection. It has robots. It has outer space. It has bad guys. It has robotic smack-downs, and it has a little guy empowered enough to save the world and be seen as heroic in his mom and dad's eyes. And did I mention that it has robotic smack-downs? And sometimes it even has explosions!

My nephew and I like Ricky Ricotta, but there is a slightly discordant note in that these stories seem to be aimed at very young kids (boys in particular?), but the problems are solved through fighting. No little boy that I know of wants to have problems in a fantasy action story settled over hugs and flowers, but the rough bits stand out more because the story is aimed at a young group. Little boys might like the rough bits, but will their mothers? As an action/adventure loving aunt, though, I say robotic smack-downs and occasional explosions? That kind of storytelling is hard to pass up!

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Ricky Ricotta series by Dav Pilkey. I thought it was interesting that he did not illustrate these books himself, although the format of the tale is very similar to his Captain Underpants books, without the silliness and toilet humor.

I get the impression that this series was meant to appeal to younger readers, be more commercially acceptable, and avoid the Banned book lists. And thus, it lacks a lot of the charm of the Tra-la-la tales.

Still, it's an entertaining and quick read and we love reading his stories. We all took turns reading this book and I think it would be a great book to get younger and/or reluctant readers excited about reading. I am sure that we'll read more of the books in this series soon.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ricky Ricotta and his Giant Robot return in another adventure. This time out their foe is a disgruntled mosquito from the plant Mercury who has plans to conquer and take over the planet Earth. Ricky and his robot must work together to save Squeakyville, and the planet, but Ricky must finish his math test first.

[Brenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because his robot chopped his teacher's car in half when he was teaching math. Mr. Mosquito hated Mercury and his flip-flops stick to the floor.

[Chris Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like is the book Ricky loves his but so sometimes it passed friend who one only his someone his said with Ricky could have so by him

[Craig Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was awesome. I love the math problems in the beginning.

[Edwin munguia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this Ricky Ricotta more because of how the rule mosquito had his crew he made them by using his dna. Also like any other Rick Ricotta book they tried to take over Ricky and his Robots planet but it didn’t work out because his robot saved him at the end.

[Emily Traasdahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book just could have been better.

[Corban · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part was that Ricky had a giant robot to fight against the evil mosquitos. This book wasn't quite as awesomer as Captain underpants.

[Emmett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it because it was so hot on Venus 🥵.

[Sion · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny book.For example they with fight and have some joyful scenes. But I don't like this book because it look like silly book. It didn't had some special things. It good for have fun but not good for read to get the deep mean.

[Chris Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT for Kids who HATE reading! I have a kid (age 8) who comes to me for speech therapy and is really struggling learning to decode, has been for years. He says "no" to every book. Exasperated, I asked, "What do YOU WANT to read?" "Ricky Ricotta." and he CAN read a lot of it!!! It was so fun and refreshing!

With only 1-3 sentences per page, he was able to get that flow we all adore. He went on to tell me all about all of the Ricky Ricotta books. We even charted out all the books in the series by date and noticed about 8 years where none of these books was published. I said, "He must have had a child, or a second child more likely." Then the kid reminded me Dav wrote Captain Underpants and Dogman & CatKid. We ran out of time to look it up but it was likely in that window. My little non-reader was dying to know why Dav hadn't made a Pluto book and an asteroid belt book, but refused to email Dav and suggest it. (I have a photograph of the whiteboard chart of just some of Dav'e books). This kid even knew Dav's story about getting in trouble at school and doodling etc.

In the meantime, I discovered the illustrator, Dan Santat, who has illustrated a TON of stuff is coming out with his own MS graphic novel, A First Time For Everything, with which I have like 5 things in common already, including a small version of the main character's big traumatic event, and Dan's from Camarillo. So I HAD to email him to let him know I'm from T.O. #dansantatfangirl #dork #Olympictorch relay through camarillofields1984losangelesolympics

[Jenna Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary:
This is a story about a mouse named Ricky Ricotta and a giant flying Robot who encounter a villain named Mr. Mosquito.

Characteristics:
This graphic novel has unique drawings that tell the story in additional to some text. The drawings are in black and white except for the front cover. The words are easy to read and the lines are spaced well to help with young readers.

Mentor Writing Trait:
Word choice: This book has many good adjectives to describe the story. This creates a more interesting reading experience for the reader and keeps them engaged.

"Mr. Mosquito went into his secret laboratory and clipped his filthy fingernails. He put the clippings in a giant machine and zapped them with a powerful ray."

Classroom Integration:
I would like to have this book in addition to the other Giant Robot graphic novels. This is a good series for students who also like other books by Das Pilkey (like Captain Underpants). Although there are mosquitoes in this book, they are not realistically drawn so it is not unappealing for the reader. There is also some math equations that are told in the story, so this could be read when learning about basic division and multiplication.

Reading level: 3.5

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Miss 3 loves Captain Underpants and now we've worked our way through almost all of Dav Pilkey's Ricky Ricotta books as well. They haven't captured her at the same level of sparkly LOVE as C. U. but she enjoys them enough to re-read them the following week. Although our library has these at the same reading level as C.U. they are much shorter and quicker to read. They're also more positive in general and a good entry for younger kids. As a parent, I love how the series works its way through the solar system and has little facts about each planet! Also, how the local jail slowly fills up with each arch-villain!

#2 Mercury : okay
#3 Venus : okay
#4 Mars : okay
#5 Jupiter: We liked Lucy getting added. Plus the shift to a non-fighting resolution and now super-small super-cute Jurassic Jackrabbits becoming pets.
#6 : Saturn: Featuring Lucy and the Jackrabbits too :)
#7: Uranus : Featuring Lucy and the Jackrabbits too :) I loved all the alliteration in this one!

[melhara]

I previously read Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot Vs the Voodoo Vultures from Venus which I've reviewed here.

This was a cute and lengthy picture book about a mouse and his giant rodent robot saving Earth from Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury. There was a section where the Giant Robot helped Ricky cheat on his math test, which was quite funny. As with the previous book I read, I enjoyed the graphics and the bonus flip-o-rama and how-to-draw-the-character pages.

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Part of a personal challenge to read all of my boyfriend's and his sister's childhood books before we donate and give them away.

[Emily Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

the comic by Dav Pilkey is about a mouse Ricky and a big robot fight with a big and clever mosquito. In the beginning of the book, the author told us the robot and the mouse are good friends, the robot often help Ricky doing math homework. And the mosquito from Mercury lives very bad so it decide to get the earth. As the book continues, the mosquito call many mosquitos to help him and fight with robot and Ricky. In the end of the book, the robot and Ricky win and put mosquito into the prison.I think the book is interesting because the drawing is very fun.

[Munchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like the first book, The second book from the Ricky and Mighty Robot series is a solid storytelling told in bright colorful drawings and comic book like fight scenes. There is always a villain, an evil one, that is unique. This time we are fighting a mosquito man and his army from the planet Mercury. At the end there is a giant robot fight scene where you flip back and forth the pages to see the action.

The thing that was different about this book from the first was the beginning. Ricky needs help with something and Mighty Robot is there to lend a hand. This time it's math, vs the first book talking about bullies. And it's shown in a fun way that makes learning seem cool to kids. But it's brief and then the two are off saving the town again.

No real personal growth for Ricky unless you count watching him take a math test. His character is one dimensional. And like the first book, my favorite character is Mighty Robot because of the neat things they can do. I'd like to see the third book change up the formula a bit to keep things interesting. But for now, I recommend book 2 as a fun choice for kids just learning to read on their own, or have a parent read it out loud to them.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, the title of the one I read is "Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Mech-Monkeys from Mars," but it doesn't appear yet in Goodreads.

I read this because it's supposedly science fiction. It is a fast read, and probably amusing to the very young reader. Grade 2 or 3, perhaps. There is even flip-o-rama as there is in the Captain Underpants series.

I may not love it, but I love that an important audience will!

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely geared for an even younger audience than Captain Underpants and they seemed to base this series off of all the criticisms of Captain Underpants. This is basically teacher approved Captain Underpants so it's kind of lame, there's no humour outside the slapstick of the drawings. instead of pranks there's a math lesson to sneakily teach kids. It's Dav Pilkey with all the edge sanded off but at least there's a big robot fight.

[Melody Harmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first chapter book that my son read. It was dreadfully painful for me to listen to him try to read it. However, it was simple enough that he was able to read most of the words. This is a good book for hesitant readers if they like things like the transformers. It has a comic book section in it that is fun for the little kids.

[Joshua Winkelmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really good because it was really fun and the new characters in the book were really interesting. The only reason that I have put 4 stars on this book as the plot of all the books in this series remains the same. Overall this is a good book for children and adults who like wacky fictional robots and made up species.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

William gives this book 5 stars, because he read it in just one day.

What did you like about it? I like when the might robot used cars to do the math.

What’s another part you like? I also liked when Ricky’s teacher said, “M-m-m-my car!”

Who else would like this book? I don’t know. Maybe Riley. He likes to read Captain Underpants and Bad Kitty.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ricky's robot is helping him with his homework, by which I mean: cheating. Meanwhile Mr. Mosquito is sick of the hot days and cold nights of Mercury and creates an army to invade Earth.

We read the Martin Oliveros version. The art is fine, but almost nothing is as good as Dan Santat. This is an early chapter book, with only a sentence or two on each page and illustrations on each page.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I got a little disappointed about this book. It ended up that it had some repetitive parts from the previous book, which made me nervous about the rest of the series, which I was looking forward to. But, I still think it was a good book. I still enjoyed it. I like the planetary theming. It was still funny with the math parts. I still think it was a good book overall.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because I like Ricky Ricotta books. I also enjoyed this book because I like the flip-o-rama.

[Yuiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Captain Underpants u still love this!!

It has the same format like Captain Underpants house, story, comic and flip o Rama!! It's a great way to encourage kids to read and start a love for it.

The story has good morals such as learning and being a hero by keeping people safe

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 2000.

This book was great! It was goofy and silly, but a book I read in one sitting. I would definitely include this in my classroom library as a book children could select during personal reading time.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 8 year old loves this series! They're all wild adventures with action, silliness and absolutely amazing illustrations by the wonderful Dan Santat (in the updated editions). They're a great length for new readers too!

[Dope Ghost Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants stole my heart in my youth. His Ricky Ricotta series didn't necessarily have the same impact but this book and the third installment were always great. The idea of mutant mosquitos from Mercury also always freaked me the Hell out.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son picked this up randomly from the library, seems like a fun story involving Ricky and the Mighty Robot fending off an invasion. The humor was good, though I question the Robot helping Ricky on his math test, haha.