Summary:
At first, we start with two distinct characters. Hayley, is a very smart thirteen year old girl from Connecticut. She applies for the very first Fellowship for Alien Detection Scholarship given by the Gavin Keller Foundation and she gets it. This begins her journey to Arizona where she investigates these odd time lapses. An entire town loses 16 minutes. The town is disoriented, and someone is missing. In Hayley's attempt to build up her newspaper reporter resume, she begins an investigation into why Juliette has had this strange occurrence happen to them.
The other winner for the Fellowship for Alien Detection Scholarship is Dodger. Dodger is from Washington. He believes himself to be an outsider, even amongst his own family. He wins this scholarship because he can hear the radio broadcast from Juliette, Arizona playing in his head. No one has ever heard of Juliette, so he is off to discover what has happened to this little town, and why can he hear their radio station?
When Hayley and Dodger's stories collide, the real fun begins. Both of them make huge discoveries, meet other alien researchers (and maybe some aliens themselves), and add way more than either ever wanted for their resumes. What do aliens have in store for our planet?
My thoughts:
I often find alien stories to be scary or hokey. There aren't a ton that are in-between. This one is just a lot of fun. There are some ridiculously funny parts where you want to slap your knee and shake your head, as well as several parts that have you reading into the wee hours of the night because of the never-ending suspense. Dodger is my favorite character because he is just so adorable you could squeeze him like a teddy bear, but Hayley is the persuasive character that will get to the bottom of anything. The two of them work very well as a duo and take the reader on an adventure of a lifetime all while attempting to protect their families or hide the "what's really going on here". Other than aliens, this is a tale of friends, family, and reaching for what you believe in. The language is not difficult, but the size can be daunting. I would have no problem putting this into a middle school or high school library (yes, older kids love alien adventure as well). I don't know if I would hand this off to a 4th of 5th grader without knowing that they were very strong readers.
At first, we start with two distinct characters. Hayley, is a very smart thirteen year old girl from Connecticut. She applies for the very first Fellowship for Alien Detection Scholarship given by the Gavin Keller Foundation and she gets it. This begins her journey to Arizona where she investigates these odd time lapses. An entire town loses 16 minutes. The town is disoriented, and someone is missing. In Hayley's attempt to build up her newspaper reporter resume, she begins an investigation into why Juliette has had this strange occurrence happen to them.
The other winner for the Fellowship for Alien Detection Scholarship is Dodger. Dodger is from Washington. He believes himself to be an outsider, even amongst his own family. He wins this scholarship because he can hear the radio broadcast from Juliette, Arizona playing in his head. No one has ever heard of Juliette, so he is off to discover what has happened to this little town, and why can he hear their radio station?
When Hayley and Dodger's stories collide, the real fun begins. Both of them make huge discoveries, meet other alien researchers (and maybe some aliens themselves), and add way more than either ever wanted for their resumes. What do aliens have in store for our planet?
My thoughts:
I often find alien stories to be scary or hokey. There aren't a ton that are in-between. This one is just a lot of fun. There are some ridiculously funny parts where you want to slap your knee and shake your head, as well as several parts that have you reading into the wee hours of the night because of the never-ending suspense. Dodger is my favorite character because he is just so adorable you could squeeze him like a teddy bear, but Hayley is the persuasive character that will get to the bottom of anything. The two of them work very well as a duo and take the reader on an adventure of a lifetime all while attempting to protect their families or hide the "what's really going on here". Other than aliens, this is a tale of friends, family, and reaching for what you believe in. The language is not difficult, but the size can be daunting. I would have no problem putting this into a middle school or high school library (yes, older kids love alien adventure as well). I don't know if I would hand this off to a 4th of 5th grader without knowing that they were very strong readers.
