• Product Details
• Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, June 2010
• Hardcover, 176 pages
• ISBN-10: 1416979514
• ISBN-13: 9781416979517
• Ages: 7 - 10
• Grades: 2 - 5

SYNOPSIS:

The perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!

Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn't hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren't kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,400,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as their leader, "kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?

 

First of all, this a book I think that a boy would be more interested in than a girl. Also, it is geared for the younger teen crowd ages 7-10.  With that in mind, I tried to read it from that perspective. 

First the bad of the book.  It is very confusing to try and figure it out when trying to figure out where the plot is wanting to go.  It didn't flow like it should, and at many times I was left scratching my head.  It has a lot of references to different internet sites throughout the story and I am guessing the author wanted to have the book correspond with these sites.  Personally, I think getting a child to read a book is more important than having a child read a little, check a website, and then read the book more.  To me it wasn't what reading is all about.

The good points of the book are the illustrations.  I thought they were cute and funny.  They fit the feel of the book perfectly.  The cover is nice and bright and probably would be appealing to the younger readers.  Since the book is basically about space aliens, I do think it is great to have a book for the boys who read.  You just don't see a lot of books geared for boys anymore. 

In my overall opinion, the book was just okay.  It might be a little confusing for the age group it is targeting, and might even be more confusing if the child doesn't have access to the internet.