The Battle

Jennifer Torres's The Battle is a sci-fi adventure for 11 year olds in which three friends splash down on Earth and meet the families they were taken from.

What happens

This isn't where the Briny Deep story starts. Tim, Max and Emily already know the big secret when it opens. They grew up in the seaside town of Briny Deep on the planet Indus, but they were born on Earth.

Now they're heading back through a wormhole (with Max being sick into a tube for most of the landing). The ship plunges into the ocean and everyone's fine, just a bit green.

Earth turns out to be very weird. The bugs are tiny, the bread tastes like cake and hot dogs are just gross. There's even a class to explain it all, which Max calls Earth School. Who knew "how you doing" wasn't really a question?

Then come the families. Emily finally gets to hug her little sister Isabelle. Max's family turns out to include someone he's already met. And Tim's dad has been in the room all along.

Something else has changed too. On Earth each of them can suddenly do something new. Max is super strong (a baseball goes clean over the tallest building). Emily can spot an octopus nobody else can see. And Tim keeps hearing what people are thinking, which he'd quite like to switch off.

It's a lot to take in and the book gives it room. Tim misses the parents who raised him. Emily can't bring herself to call her Earth mum Mum. Tim's Earth mum has kept his toddler bedroom exactly as it was, toy aeroplanes and all. If your reader finds stories about children separated from their families hard, that's the heart of this series, although it's handled with plenty of warmth and a LOT of hugs.

It isn't all hugs. Back on Indus a commander who wants to be called Trident is closing in, and one of the grown-ups working for Earth gets caught. Then Tim does something very brave and very silly and stows away on a ship going back.

The chapters are short and several of them end on a cliffhanger. Can you really stop reading when Tim's hiding in a box of coats trying not to sneeze?

What to read next

If they like the feeling that the grown-ups are hiding something enormous, My Teacher is an Alien is a funny one to try next. Susan's favourite teacher vanishes after the holidays, and the strict new one isn't what he seems.