August 31, 2015
When Daniel’s snarky older sister tells him that he’s actually an adopted alien, the sixth-grader finds evidence to support her claim: he towers over his family, no baby pictures of him exist, and a meteor reportedly struck town the day he was born. Disgruntled, Daniel asks his best friends Eddie and “Gordon the Geek” to help him return to his home planet. Their efforts include attempting to cryogenically freeze Daniel in the bathtub and sell their Halloween candy to fund a trip to Russia, where he hopes to hitch a ride on a spaceship. Things really pick up once the kids concoct a madcap scheme for Daniel to phone home, à la E.T., triggering a string of disasters that culminates in Daniel’s parents’ kidnapping. Kelley’s pencil cartoons (not all seen by PW) easily tap into the story’s oddball sense of humor, while Daniel’s dry narration has an engaging sense of humor, making the book a good choice for newly independent readers. Ages 10–12. Author’s agent: Anne Clark, Anne Clark Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary.
September 1, 2015
One of the best things about unreliable narrators is that very often they're hilariously wrong about everything. But readers may be a little sad when Daniel's conspiracy theories turn out not to be true. Daniel believes he's an alien. He has his reasons. He's at least a foot taller than everyone in his family. There isn't a single photo of him as a baby. And, most important, he's the only person in the neighborhood who likes chocolate milkshakes with bacon bits. So he wants to find his home planet and go back. This might have made a good premise for a science-fiction novel, complete with a government coverup and maybe even some Men in Black. But anyone who's read a middle-grade novel will know that there's usually a mundane explanation for everything, often accompanied by a tidy message about the value of family and friends. Still, the big climax, featuring alien-loving cultists, is at least sporadically funny, and Daniel's observations about his family are genuinely entertaining: "When Mom lost her wedding ring, she located it using a metal detector. It was in the body of my baby brother, Timmy." Unfortunately, this book doesn't let Daniel fulfill the promise of the unreliable comedic narrator; most of the time, he's just plain wrong about everything. (Fiction. 9-12)
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