Book excerpt: "Mrs. Hall says we have to keep writing, it is a dying art. 'Good, let it die,' I said, and then she said, 'You are staying in at break Jon Fisher.'" Jon's teacher has started an interplanetary penpal program. Much to Jon's annoyance, his penpal, Straxi, is from Pluto, the most boring, smelliest and far away place possible. And if that wasn't bad enough, she's a girl!