First Day on Earth

October 3, 2011
Mal, a high school loner who has all but withdrawn from the world, believes that aliens abducted him four years earlier in the California desert, where he disappeared for three days. And he wouldn’t mind if they came back for him. It’s easy to see why Mal would want to escape Earth: his mother has a drinking problem, his father abandoned them six years ago, and he’s ostracized and taunted at school. When Mal meets a strange man at a support group for alien abductees, Hooper surprises Mal by claiming to be an extraterrestrial. Is Hooper insane—or Mal’s best chance for getting off the planet? Castellucci (Rose Sees Red) gives Mal a strong narrative voice, but while Mal is a sympathetic protagonist, most of the characters feel like types, from his alcoholic mother to popular Posey, who is hiding a painful secret. Readers may find the climactic road trip Mal takes with Posey—ostensibly to take Hooper to meet a spaceship—equally contrived: in the course of one day, Mal goes to a random house party, faces his father, learns Posey’s secret, and more. Ages 12–up.

October 1, 2011
A lonely teen claims to have been abducted by aliens in this heartfelt offering by the author of Rose Sees Red (2010). Troubled Mal attends two different support groups: one for teenagers with alcoholic parents and one for people who believe they were experimented on by aliens. His mother started drinking heavily after his dad deserted them six years ago, and shortly thereafter Mal went missing, to be discovered miles away from his home three days later. Already unpopular at school, his secret gnaws at him and makes him feel even more isolated. So when eccentric Hooper shows up and claims to actually be an alien on his way home, Mal hopes to convince him to take Mal on as a copilot. But the prospect of leaving it all behind the way his father did makes Mal seriously consider what he would lose and whom he would hurt. Mal's spare first-person narration is wistful and raw, reflecting the feelings of anyone who's ever felt misunderstood or abandoned. "I got lost and disappeared. For days. Sometimes I wonder which part of me came back." Castellucci also creates vibrant secondary characters, including wise Hooper, with a minimum of words--a welcome relief in these times of bloated teen fantasy novels. A simple, tender work that speaks to the alien in all of us. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-Four years ago, Malcolm was abducted and probed by aliens for three days. He was found in the desert, and although he claims alien abduction, most people believe he had a psychotic break. Mal is unable to move past his father's abandonment, and he is coping poorly with the reality that his mom is a depressed alcoholic. He attends Alateen to address his anger and pain over being abandoned and neglected by both parents and attends alien-abduction group meetings to feel a sense of belonging. Though Mal has a few acquaintances in Mark, Sameer, and Posey, he is extremely lonely. He is the ever-present observer of his peers and of bullying but rarely interacts with others. He is judged on his appearance and quietness. When he meets Hooper, an alien sent to Earth to observe, he slowly begins to open up. Some readers might be put off by Mal's detached style, but they will want to find out what happens to him, and the short chapters will appeal to reluctant readers.-Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Grades 7-10 Sixteen-year-old Mal comes off as your typical moody teen misfit. Some might say it is because of his abandonment by his father; others might blame his mother's alcoholism. But what Mal keeps secret is something much worse: four years ago he was abducted by aliens, drugged and probed, and then dropped in the desert. Or at least he thinks that is what happenedthough alarming, the memories are fuzzy at best. Castellucci isn't so much interested in science fiction as she is in what it means to be alone: I got lost and disappeared. For days. Sometimes I wonder which part of me came back. This very short novel focuses on the hesitant friendships Mal forges with a few other classmatesall loners in their own waysas well as Hooper, a strange man who shows up to the local abduction support group claiming to be an extraterrestrial. The plot moves so swiftly that it is hard for the characters to become more than notes, though in Castellucci's hands, those notes are unflaggingly graceful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)