How Oscar Indigo Broke the Universe (and Put It Back Together Again) by David Teague (review)

Oscar is officially a Wildcat on the East Mt. Etna Slugger League team, but as its uncontested worst player, he's barely set foot on the diamond, confining himself to cheering on his teammates and passing out his own special OscarAde. With the Wildcats heading into the first game of a championship series against snooty West Mt. Etna, this isn't the time to call Oscar off the bench, but as luck would have it, star player Lourdes hurts her foot and Oscar is the only eligible sub. As luck would also have it, he has in his pocket a time-stopping watch—received just that day from an elderly neighbor before she was abducted by men in black—that lets him stall a pitch in midair so that he can hit it for a homer and win the game. Not the most ethical move, granted, but the repercussions are disproportionately dire. The nineteen seconds of "missing" time have opened a portal to other multiverses, resulting in pterodactyls roosting in trees and in men in black abducting Oscar and apprising him of his responsibility to set the universe right. Fast cuts from event to event recall comic-book pacing, and the snappy, abridged conversations would be right at home in speech bubbles. Tone is key in this quirky outing, and Teague makes clear that readers are simply to run with each preposterous turn while the characters deadpan their way through mounting disasters. But since the universe gets saved, who's to quibble? EB