Eight Days on Planet Earth

August 1, 2017
A white teenage boy must decide if the strange girl he's falling for is an extraterrestrial in this sophomore effort by the author of The Leaving Season (2016). Matty Jones' life is upended when his alien-obsessed father suddenly abandons the family. His grief is tempered by the discovery of a brown-skinned, white-haired girl named Priya in the field behind his rural Pennsylvania home. The ground is rumored to be the site of a past UFO crash, and Priya claims she is an alien who will soon be catching a ride back to her planet. Matty is doubtful, but that doesn't stop him from introducing Priya to all the wonders of Earth, including roller coasters, swimming, and, of course, sex. But he worries about Priya's severe headaches, which she chalks up to gravity sickness. It takes some time (readers who know that Priya is a fairly common Indian name will be way ahead of him), but finally Matty is forced to confront the truth about both Priya's situation and his feelings about his father. While Jordan's predictable, Starman-esque story is executed in boilerplate prose ("Take your bullshit frustrations out on some other chump. Not me" and "That is not the tone to take with me this morning" are typical exchanges) the tragic, touching ending is memorable. Secondary characters Brian and Emily Aoki are Japanese-American siblings. Shoots for the stars; doesn't quite make it. (Fiction. 12-15)

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October 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-An immediately engaging story with a massive plot twist. Seventeen-year-old Matty is facing an aimless summer in his small town when his slacker dad, DJ, finally leaves for good. Living next to a field where a spaceship purportedly crashed, Matty and his dad had bonded over a love of space. But as DJ becomes addicted to his fringe theory followers, the whole family grows apart. Matty tells himself he and his mom are better off without him. Then a frail white-haired girl appears in the mysterious field to whom Matty and his dog are irresistibly drawn. Priya claims she is on Earth to collect data and is heading back to her home planet soon. She embodies everything Matty and his father once wanted to believe about the possibilities of space. Priya is delightfully odd and perceptive, and she helps Matty see the small wonders of his life. But Matty doesn't know if he is waiting on a spaceship, heartbreak, or both. This compelling page-turner will have readers happily suspending disbelief. Matty and Priya give each other much in terms of belief and faith, leaving readers to constantly wonder if their relationship is coincidence or cosmic destiny. Matty is an excellent and engaging narrator and all supporting characters play true parts. VERDICT A wonderfully readable, ultimately hopeful, and life-affirming story that will be enjoyed by fans of Nicola Yoon's The Sun Is Also a Star and Gae Polisner's The Memory of Things.-Lee De Groft, Jamestown High School, Williamsburg, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018
Matty meets a "crazy, crazy girl" in the rural-Pennsylvania field where a spaceship purportedly landed in 1965. Priya is from a planet near Gliese 581c, she tells him, and she's waiting to go home. Matty's first-person narrative rings true, and though Priya's real story will likely leave readers in tears, they will be glad to have shared "eight days on planet Earth" with Matty and Priya.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2017
When his father walks out on the family, seventeen-year-old Matty Jones flippantly tells his mother, The ones left behind get on with their lives. But it's not that simple, and Jordan deftly delineates the discrepancy between Matty's apparent good riddance attitude and the real bond he knows he had with his father. And now he's met a crazy, crazy girl out in the field near his rural Pennsylvania home, where a spaceship is said to have landed back in 1965. The girl's name is Priya and she's tall and skinny, has white hair and brown eyes, wears a tutu-like skirt, and keeps a notebook for collecting data. She's from a planet near Gliese 581c, she tells Matty, and she's waiting to go home. She couldn't really be an alien, could she? Yet she doesn't seem to know what a dog is and she doesn't have a cell phone ( Is there anyone on this planet who doesn't own a cell? ), so Matty suspends disbelief. Matty's voice rings true in a first-person narrative that succeeds in creating in Priya a plausible alien. Though her real story will likely leave readers in tears, they will be glad they got to share eight days on planet Earth with Matty and Priya. dean Schneider

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)