Friday, 10 January 2014

Double Review: Alien In My Pocket: Blast Off and The Science Unfair

Well, from time to time, a healthy dosage of children's book will surely help your mind.  I don't know what I am getting into, when I started this.  What I really got is 'mischief'.


Original Title: Alien in my Pocket: Blast Off
Series: Alien in my Pocket #1
Author: Nate Ball
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: January 21st 2014
Source: Review copy from the publisher
Genre: Children's

The adventure begins in this exciting new chapter book series!

When a four-inch-tall alien crash-lands through Zack McGee's bedroom window, Zack is sure he's about to become the first victim in a new War of the Worlds. But when the alien turns out to have weapons that are more ticklish than terrifying, Zack realizes that rather than protect the world from the alien, it's up to him to protect the alien in his pocket from the world.

REVIEW

An alien, Amp, lands crash-lands in Zack's bedroom.  Amp has come to scout the Earth before his planet wages a war on Earth and take over.  But, Amp realizes that they were miscalculated about human's size and want to go back to its planet to hold them back.  And our Zack, along with his friend, Olivia, is going to get Amp back by repairing his spaceship..  Trouble is Zack don't know ABC of science.

This book was so much fun.  Zack and Olivia with Amp's 'tricks' make a perfect team.  Nate Ball's writing is so humorous that I laughed out loud at number of places.

"It's a cat," I said.  "Cats are animals.  People have them because.. Well, people like to have cats because... Actually I don't like cats, and I have no idea why we even have one."

Zack's lack of interest in academics is so hilarious.

"I went to school for over a hundred Earth years, you know.""Whoa, and I thought I had it bad."

But, his brother is a science geek and so there is some pressure.  And imagine what, I think people must understand what Zack or many of the kids need is practical understanding of the purpose of education, not paper-to-brain reading.  The kid has it in him to learn, just not how others want.  Nice job with the fun learning part..

Humor filled adventure!  Get it for your kids, they will learn something from this..and so will you!





Original Title: Alien in my Pocket: The Science Unfair
Series: Alien in my Pocket #2
Author: Nate Ball
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: January 21st 2014
Source: Review copy from the publisher
Genre: Children's

Ever since Amp crash-landed his spaceship through Zack McGee's bedroom window, Zack's life has gotten crazier and his grades have gone from bad to worse. Who has time for homework when there's an alien invasion to stop? But now Zack's up against his greatest challenge yet—the school science fair. If Zack doesn't get an A on his project, he's going to flunk the class. Luckily, Zack has Amp around to help, but when Zack's experiment turns out to be too good, he winds up in a whole different kind of trouble.

Like every book in the Alien in My Pocket series, The Science UnFairmixes Common Core–aligned science and safe, hands-on experiments with hilarious stories that young readers will love.

REVIEW

This book continues some days after Zack's epic failure at sending Amp back.  The kid has just a few more days to rebuild the spaceship and send Amp back.  But, there is more important work for Zack than saving the world.  He has to enter into travel baseball team and for that, he should have high grades (or so his mom says).  And for that grade, he need to do a science project.

This is as hilarious as its previous book.  Zach is back to being the average boy who is not interested in education.  Now, he needs A grade for his parents to permit him to play baseball.  The science project he came up was a disaster and I was laughing hard at what he did.  And then comes the real science project with the help of his friends.  I absolutely loved it - the team, although annoying at times, made good progress working together.

The issue with Zack's little brother, Taylor, snooping around in Zack's room to find the mystery of the funny noises and Zack's lonely conversations is thrilling.  Taylor's jealousy towards his brother's new-found limelight is amusing and can be associated with our fellow kids.

The wrap up of this novel is neat and perfect.  Can't wait to see more of Amp's and Zack's adventures!

Recommended to kids, who are ready to read chapter books!


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