Kell and the Giants

Darcy Pattison's Kell and the Giants is a funny alien-at-school story for 7 year olds about a boy with one enormous secret and a dog who might sniff it out.

What happens

Kell Smith looks like any other kid in third grade. He isn't. His family crash-landed here from the planet Bix, and he can move things with his mind (very handy when your friend needs a boost over a patch of wet paint).

His best friend Bree knows the truth. Nobody else can.

That gets a LOT harder when the head teacher, Mrs Lynx, turns up with a new dog called Gloria. Gloria is a pointer, and Mrs Lynx says she's been trained to point at aliens. Mrs Lynx also runs the Society of Alien Chasers, so this is very bad news.

Meanwhile the family party business, Aliens, Inc., has a job on. Roman is the tallest boy in the class and he wants a birthday party all about giants. Stilts, jawbreakers, a hammer game with a bell at the top, the works.

Kell tells the story himself and he's lovely company. Earth baffles him. What on earth is a jawbreaker? (Mum thinks it's something for breaking your friends' jaws.) Why does a map have a key when it hasn't got a door? He keeps a Look-Up Later list for all of it. He's also terrified of bugs, which is awkward, because Mum has just bought a beehive.

There's a sweet friendship thread running underneath the jokes. Bree can't stop talking about aliens at lunch, and Kell starts to worry she'll give him away. Anyone who's had a friend who's rubbish at keeping secrets will recognise how that falling-out feels.

And there's a Geography Day map contest, where Kell quietly does something kind for each of his friends and makes sure nobody knows it was him.

It's gently exciting rather than scary. The tensest bits are Gloria pointing straight at Kell across a crowded corridor, and a frightening scene when a bee stings Mum and she struggles to breathe. A worrier might want a grown-up close by for that chapter.

What to read next

This isn't Kell's first adventure on Earth. The family have already put on a parade, and Kell drew the map for it. If your reader wants to see how Aliens, Inc. managed that one, try Kell and the Horse Apple Parade next.