THE FELLOWSHIP FOR ALIEN DETECTION, by Kevin Emerson

The story: from completely different areas of the country, three 8th-graders stumble onto the biggest story of the century (or maybe ever): aliens getting ready to invade, already running experiments on earthlings to decide whether to wipe them out entirely, or just allow them to survive as a sub-species. Don't let the cartoon-like front cover fool you: life on earth is about to come to an end if Suza, Dodger, and Haley can't solve the puzzle in time.

June Cleaver’s ratings: Language PG-13; Nudity G; Sexual Content G; Violence PG; Magic and the occult G; Substance Abuse G; GLBT contentG ; Adult themes PG (lying to parents, kidnapping); Overall rating PG.

Liz's comments: Judging from the cover, I really thought this was going to be an extra-terrestrial sci-fi parody--but much to my surprise (and despite some funny, accurate MS humor), it turned out to be an action-filled story about aliens, kids who interact with aliens, and the conflict between following your dreams and doing what's right for your family. Boys would actually be the best target audience for this, but sadly, Dodger's story doesn't begin until more than 150 pages into the book…and generally, boy readers won't have stuck around through that much girl stuff to get to the boy part. Sad, because Emerson's teens are very authentic and both boys and girls who like science fiction would find something to identify with if they'd give it a go