Jo Franklin

This was an odd story. 6th grader Daniel Kendal doesn't fit anywhere. He stands out - literally - in his family, has no friends at school except weirdo Eddie and Gordon the geek, and his nasty older sister just told him he's an alien! With the help of his friends, he decides to go home to Kepler-B, the planet he's sure he came from.

With his friends' help, he tries to prepare for space travel and contact his true family. However, after a series of misadventures and a truly catastrophic show more Halloween, Daniel is starting to suspect he may have made a mistake.

The book comes in under 200 pages, which is great - there aren't many books for older elementary readers that aren't massive tomes - but it's very uneven writing and the black and white pencils illustrations feel too young for the intended audience. While the characters wildly swinging from maturity to naive innocence is, perhaps, realistic, I found it hard to believe that a 5th grader could actually believe they were an actual alien. One minute they're discussing whether or not Daniel is an alien and the next they're flipping each other off and doing complicated technology on computers. I would have found it more believable if Daniel's horrible sister had told him he was adopted and he and his friends had investigated that.

Daniel's family is kind of horrible. I can see why he'd hope to be adopted - his parents are oddly cavalier about his health and welfare and his sister is a really unpleasant person who never suffers any consequences. The book was funny in parts, but overall I just didn't care for it and I can't think of an audience for it at my library.

Verdict: Not recommended.

ISBN: 9780544442955; Published 2015 by Clarion; Purchased for my personal libraryI'm an alien and I want to go home! by Jo Franklin, illustrated by Marty Kelley show less

The Twisted Fairy Tale series keep coming with a marvelous adaption of Little Red Riding Hood, except this time she's quite rude! Little Rude looks mischievous and mean and says mean things as well! Once she gets her little, red jacket on she goes for a walk to her Grandma's house and bumps into Mr. Wolf and other creatures in the forest.

I absolutely love the art style of this series. It's whimsy, bright and soft. I also totally adore re-tellings of fairy tales, so this book was just what I show more was looking for.

The overall theme of being nice and kind is a lovely point to make. I like that this series includes themes like this into the original fairy tales. It also made for quite an interesting spin on Little Red Riding Hood that I did not expect!

Again, my only criticism of this series is that the copies I get have a table of contents. I don't think books this short require one, but that's just my personal opinion and taste.

Four out of five stars!

I received this book for free through NetGalley. show less

I liked this one. It was different than most romance or mystery books I've read, so it stood out.

I thought the story was very original, and I've always been fascinated by Egypt, so this one spoke to me right away.

I loved how the author incorporated time travel between ancient and current Egypt. The plot unfolded in such a way that I didn't ever really guess what would happen next. Not that I really tried to do that, but lots of books are just so obvious that you know what's coming anyway.

I show more very much enjoyed reading this and will look for more books by Jo Franklin. show less

I liked this one. It was different than most romance or mystery books I've read, so it stood out.

I thought the story was very original, and I've always been fascinated by Egypt, so this one spoke to me right away.

I loved how the author incorporated time travel between ancient and current Egypt. The plot unfolded in such a way that I didn't ever really guess what would happen next. Not that I really tried to do that, but lots of books are just so obvious that you know what's coming anyway.

I show more very much enjoyed reading this and will look for more books by Jo Franklin. show less