James Mihaley

Giles is stuck as the middle child of his family between his bright older brother Bobby, and his amazing musician of a sister Nikki. When all of a sudden aliens show up from the horrible plant Desoleen to take over the Earth, Giles is granted the task of having to clean up all of New York City's graffiti and litter by the Halls of Universal Justice.With help of Tula the alien lawyer, and three other people of his choice, Giles sets out to complete his given task which they have only given him 24 hours to complete. Giles chooses Bobby, his friend Toshi, Dr. Sprinkles, and Neveda who is only given hints about what is going on. Using alien technology from Dr. Sprinkles such as robots called 'Big Daddy" and "Flybots" Giles and Toshi set out to clean New York together. Of course they will reach obstacles to sabotage their plans because Princess Petulance wants to leave Desoleen and finally move to our planet. There will be traveling to the unknown planets of outer space, and even parties with alien! With all the help from friends and aliens, they know they will succeed.

I honestly LOVE THIS BOOK! I love how most of the characters are my age and that makes it easier to have a connection to the characters problems. My favorite character is Giles of course cause he is super funny, and he just makes the book the reason it deserves five stars! I love the adventures they go on to the different planets and all the alien characters they meet along the way. This book has a very original plot and a very original title (another reason why it has five stars). I am not sure if this book is a continuing series, but if it is I know I am definitely finishing to series! I like how descriptive the details are for the littlest things, like the flybots! One thing I would wish was i the next book was more of Tula's POV. That was what kept me wondering the whole book. In conclusion I just loved this book, I recommend it!… (plus d'informations)

Giles feels invisible between his perfect older brother and prodigy younger sister. He's still hurt that his brother grew up without him and seems to think his grades are more important than their tree house business. Then the aliens show up and suddenly Giles is the only one who can save the human race from eviction! Can Giles finally get something right?

There are three main themes to this book; cutesy/creepy robots and aliens (definitely below the Pilkey line), Giles' obsession with having a girlfriend and getting kissed (very middle school) and "if all the kids just work together they can clean up the city and save the environment). It's also 243 pages long.

There's not a lot of science fiction for kids out there, so I was frustrated by this book. It had a lot of promise and good stuff going on. The "humans have destroyed the planet" plotline was cliched, but the being evicted spin was funny and fresh. The robots and aliens would have made a good younger chapter book, although they lacked the depth of, say, Pamela Service's Alien Agent series. The middle school/feeling like a loser plotline was good, but didn't mesh well with the other parts of the book.

Verdict: Funny and has interesting ideas, but too long and scattered for my audience. The older kids who would be interested in the girlfriend part will roll their eyes at the robot/alien line and the younger kids will be discouraged by the length and uninterested in the girlfriend line. Split it into three books and I'd buy them all!

ISBN: 9780312618919; Published 2012 by Feiwel; Borrowed from the library… (plus d'informations)