Kell and the Detectives

Darcy Pattison's Kell and the Detectives is a funny school story for 7 year olds about an alien boy whose fingerprints could give him away.

What happens

Kell Smith is in third grade. He's also from the planet Bix, which nobody at school knows except his best friend Bree.

Then, in art class, he finger paints the three suns over Bix and leaves zigzag prints all over it. Earthling fingerprints have circles. And the principal, Mrs Lynx, is president of the Society of Alien Chasers!

At home there's even bigger news. Kell's mum has laid an egg. A green one! He's going to have a baby brother, and he checks on him constantly with the Egg Cam.

Meanwhile his class has a history project that turns everyone into detectives. They have to work out which member of staff made a graffiti poster full of odd clues (a diet drink wrapper, white socks and peacock feathers among them). The family business, Aliens, Inc., is also planning a surprise detective party for Kell's friend Aja. Keeping it secret is much harder than it sounds.

This is the fourth book about Kell and his family, so Mrs Lynx has been on the hunt for a while. You catch up in no time, though.

What makes it is Kell's voice. He takes Earth very literally. He doesn't get Earthling jokes, he keeps lists of things to look up later, and he's baffled by how much Earthling girls like pink.

There are tender moments too. Kell wishes his brother could hatch at home on Bix, and he blinks back tears more than once. Bree singing silly songs to the egg is lovely.

If your reader has ever felt like the new kid who doesn't quite fit in, Kell will feel like a friend. And who wouldn't want an alien in their class?

What to read next

To meet Kell in his very first week at an Earthling school, go back to Kell, the Alien. That's where the Smiths crash-land on Earth and Kell offers to plan Bree's alien birthday party.