Space Brat

A series of children's books written by Bruce Coville about an alien named Blork. In Blork's society, babies and children are generally silent and well-behaved, but Blork had a bit of eggshell lodged behind his ear after he hatched, and wouldn't stop crying. Because of this, the computers labeled him "brat", and ever since he's been considered a brat all over his planet.

As you can imagine, growing up the go-to scapegoat among his peers left poor Blork terribly resentful. When everyone decides to blame you if a class pet gets loose and eats the furniture, or someone carves a swear word in the wall with lasers, life can be rough. It's a good thing that Blork can live up to his reputation when necessary - by throwing the loudest, wildest, most explosive tantrums in the galaxy!


 * Big Friendly Podnoobie: Lunk.
 * Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Blork's species lays eggs and don't raise their own young. Rather they have computers raise hatchlings instead.
 * Bratty Half-Pint: Blork.
 * Justified in this case, as it was a matter of "They always blame me for stuff because I was labelled "Brat" - so I may as well DO the stuff to begin with!"
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: Blork's dog poodnoobie, Lunk.
 * Chekhov's Skill: The ability to throw tantrums ends up coming in handy.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Blork's tantrums, when no other options are present. He can throw them at will, but they're demonstrably more effective when actually spurred by emotion.
 * Jerkass: Squat, a diminutive space lord who fancies himself Blork's arch nemesis.
 * Rubber Forehead Aliens: Surprising for a Coville book. Blork's species is pretty much physically identical to humans except for their green skin, lack of a nose and antennae.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Seriously. Blork's rage is astronomic. It has altered landforms and changed entire societies' interstellar outlook.