Life Hacks for a Little Alien

This tender story illustrates what daily life might feel like for a neurodivergent child, growing up in a family and a community that do not recognize her needs or know how to help her cope. When she hears about an old manuscript that has never been translated, she considers the possibility that she and the manuscript are from another world with another language. With help from a school friend, librarians, and the narrator (a voice who explains things - often linguistics - to her), the Little Alien researches the manuscript and navigates life as best she can.

Filled with gentle but sad humor, the book acknowledges all people who feel “other” and celebrates the wonder and strangeness of words, languages and books.

Written as a guidebook for the novel's young protagonist, Life Hacks for a Little Alien is the story of a girl growing up in suburban England with undiaganosed neurodivergence. Her odd behavior and unwillingness to talk much isolate her. Most of the adults in her life range from clueless to heartless, and her mother is dealing with a serious mental illness. So deciding she's an alien and creating a guide to life seems a reasonable coping strategy.

A key part of the story is the protagonist becoming fascinated with the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, a 15th century codex written in a language no one is able to decipher. Librarians, archivists, and ultimately a linguist act as guides for her journey through the Voynich Manuscript. The novel show more ends on a hopeful not, albeit as the protagonist is still a teenager it feels like there is more to her story.

Franklin takes the unusual approach of writing the novel in second person. Perhaps it's rarely used because it gets a bit grating to constantly be addressed as "you." But thematically it works as the protagonist trying to understand herself from outside herself. show less

I just loved this quirky little gem of a book. It is funny, heartfelt, loving and also a little heartbreaking as we follow a young neurodivergent girl who is just trying to fit in to a world she does not understand. I think that anyone with an autistic child would really benefit from and enjoy this story told from a child's perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the authors writing style. I listened to the audio version and the narrator, Sally Phillips did a splendid job. Highly recommended. 5 stars.

Many Thanks to Net Galley and Hachette Audio | Little, Brown & Company for a chance to read/listen to an ARC version of this novel.

I don't quite know how to describe Life Hacks for a Little Alien. It reminds me a great deal of Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince in its tone and its attention to a child's way of viewing the world. The promo materials describe it as "a love letter to language—how it shapes the world for each of us and connects us all in the end," which is accurate. Little Alien is a bad fit for the UK educational system, is consistently underestimated and over-controlled by teachers, but the book makes it clear she's hugely bright—she just doesn't come in the packaging expected for a child with intellectual promise. A number of readers and reviewers have likened Little Alien's perceptions and confusions as similar to those of a person who is show more neurodivergent, which strikes me as reasonable.

Nonethless, I find myself a bit uncomfortable with the book. It has a sort of twee approach that I feel is at odds with the issues it's trying to explore—exactly the experience I had with The Little Prince. If you enjoyed The Little Prince, you will almost certainly enjoy Life Hacks for a Little Alien. It also offers an interesting approach to understanding a version of neurodivergent experience. My advice is to look at reviews beyond this one and the promo material and make your own best guess about how you'll respond to the book.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. show less

This is a funny and heartfelt story about a lonely neurodivergent girl who doesn't understand the world around her. It is also a celebration of books and librarians! (LibroFM review)

fiction, light humor - intelligent neurodivergent UK child struggles to navigate the world as easily as everyone else seems to be able to do. To be fair, the world does not actually make as much sense as it pretends to, and makes little effort to meet one halfway.

sweet story about a child on the spectrum finding their way (while always feeling like an outsider), with light linguist humor.