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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
His best friend Bree knows the truth. Nobody else can.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12920,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7883,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Kell and the Horse Apple Parade","lr_seo_hook":"An alien boy, a party for giants and a dog trained to sniff out aliens."},"book_tag":[27],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[232],"class_list":["post-7882","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-fantasy-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-darcy-pattison"],"yoast_title":"Kell and the Giants by Darcy Pattison | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"An alien boy, a party for giants and a dog trained to sniff out aliens. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n