I Spent My Summer Vacation Kidnapped

I remember reading this book when I was a child, and I loved it. Two kids who decide to go off on a short space jaunt instead of joining the rest of their class in a "boring" end-of-year get together get kidnapped by aliens and taken to another part of the galaxy. There, the are the only humans around, and it is precisely because of this that they have been chosen for a clandestine mission to rescue the emperor's daughter. It seems ridiculous that anybody could fall for a couple of kids in monkey suits pretending to be "gifts" for the young princess... But when none of the other races know what humans are, let alone what a real monkey is, it's amazing what you can get away with. The cover shows the very memorable "slime beast" gladiator scene which was great as well. Good memories for me all around in this book; a very light sci-fi for kids, and very entertaining at that. I would buy it for nostalgic reasons if I could find it anywhere.

This book captures the imagination of readers at all levels. It depicts wonderful word choice, and can be described as one of those books you just can't put down.Two students choose to skip the end-of-the-year school picnic, and take a trip by themselves into outerspace looking for rare stones. They are kidnapped by aliens and taken to a planet which is not part of their own friendly galaxy. The kids survive a "circus," an alien version of the ancient Roman Gladiators. Afterwards they are sent to the emporer who then dresses them up like monkeys to infiltrate an enemy planet and rescue his daughter. You'll have to read it to find out how they get back to Earth.This book is very hard to find, but it is worth the search!