Ricky Ricotta is the fictional hero of a series of children's books written by U.S. author Dav Pilkey (best known for his Captain Underpants books), and illustrated by U.S. artist Martin Ontiveros. In each book, Ricky Ricotta, a mouse, with the help of his mighty robot, saves the world from an evil villain. Also, the books each have a villain from a different planet in order from closest-to-sun to farthest-from-sun excluding Earth as the villain of the first book is from Earth. The reader could see the villains being jailed in each series and later notice the familiar villains from previous books. So far, the villains being jailed are Dr. Stinky McNasty, Mr. Mosquito, Victor von Vulture, Major Monkey, General Jackrabbit, Sergeant Stinkbug, and Uncle Unicorn. The books are especially appealing to young children because each contains a "Flip-O-Rama" section. In these sections, the reader can "animate the action" by quickly flipping between sets of pages. The result is a simple stop-motion cartoon. The sections are usually devoted to fight scenes between Ricky's Robot and villains.