A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences. The scenes showcasing his emotional growth are too brief and, despite foreshadowing, the climax falls flat because he still gets incredible personal access to people he’s hurt. Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development. He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. A one-time resident of the Navajo Reservation, Wells discusses the challenges of writing about the First Nations in an author’s note.Ī teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas. Alice’s breezy narration and short chapters keep the pages flipping. Alice is conscious of the parallels between the aliens’ landing and the arrival of white people in North America her boyfriend is an Indian kid who’s grown up in the United States. Wells displays an awareness of the need for ethnic diversity in books for kids.

Suddenly, nothing is easy, nothing is the same, and nowhere is safe.

It all seems relatively easy…until the rest of the fleet arrives and starts to hunt for her new friends. Encouraged by her father to befriend two of the shipwreck survivors, Alice and her roommates welcome them to school. Enrolled in a nearby boarding school with very few other students of color, she watches with fascination as the ship finally opens to reveal aliens that look very much like humans. But when the first ship from outer space crash-lands, as NASA’s director of special projects, her dad absolutely, positively has to be there-which means Alice has to be there as well. She’s totally unprepared to follow her white, widowed father to Minnesota’s wind-swept snowfields. Half-Navajo Alice loves living in Florida, where every day is sunny and warm. Wells is back with a new sci-fi adventure that comments on U.S.

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