Earth as a homework project, cool idea for a KS2 story.

This reminded me of Jeanne Willis's picture book series about Dr Zargle, the alien teacher giving lessons to his pupils on dogs, cats and babies, not knowing the names for things but giving us humans a new perspective on ourselves and behaviours.

Those were funny, and this is too, for older readers. A similar idea, in that an alien student has created a planet for a homework project, and evolution has taken effect, sadly seeing the end of the dinosaurs and the dawning of Humans, eugh, who seem to be messing up the planet. The only way to save the situation (and not fail another assignment) is for this young inventor/pupil to visit the planet, and try to sort things out. Hopefully without having to put much work into it.

Now a 'human' called Sky, she gets to see her creations from the inside. And isn't too bothered about fitting in with the age group she appears as (primary school student). Not worried about the concerns of the kids she's in a school with, Sky tries as many quick-and-easy routes to fix the problem as she can, not noticing the potential friends, the looming chaos and unfair acts going on around her, the cliques and neighbourhood problems and... freed giraffes...?

This was a fun story looking at Us from an outsider's perspective. Sky misses the subtleties of speech, knows nothing of Earth's history (at least to start with) and her skewed view eventually of course gets noticed by other children. What will happen if anyone finds out she's an alien??

Quite stereotypic characters for the 'bad guys', but some fun seeing if the kids and community will be able to pull things together to help local causes, and seeing if Sky will see the merit in humans before her project is over.

A mixture of great ideas and decent writing.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

This fun juvenile read starts with an alien realising that her school project – a little thing she calls "Earth" – has gone awry – the thing has been infested with humans, and they've killed off all the dinosaurs she thought would earn her good grades. She decides that she can change her form into that of a human girl, and come down to Earth, where she would have a month of our time to fix things and return. Arriving with no name, no home, no kin and no change of clothing, she goes to school, hoping to become a youtube influencer to get her wish. That will be the first in a whole parade of semi-plans and half ideas that she and one or two friends (alright, mostly one) will undergo, but how can a book where the lead character wants to wipe out humanity lead to a happy ending?

This reminded me pretty much of the Loki books – if you know, you know. It doesn't have the same distinctive approach, being plain first-person prose, but it still has the feel of someone not fitting in at all while they have their mission to naughtily undertake. (And while we're on about the naughtiness, the title is a pretty poor choice, as the girl that decides to go by the name of Sky is not the worst at anything. Lazy, yes, but the description "worst" is inappropriate.) This and the Louie Stowell reads have the same peculiar character with peculiar intent, in similar disguise, and the same way to convey observations about the peculiar habits of us humans.

What we also get here is a pretty good sense of humour, from the misunderstandings caused by Sky's very literal reading of English, and what I decided could be called "sequiturs", where the chapter-ending line is completely negated by the first words over the page. It follows, in a series of upsets and twists that Sky faces on her mission, but that's partly as nobody – even when they get the privilege of knowing who she is and what she's doing – really works hard enough to explain prehistory to the girl. You also have to raise an eyebrow about the whole "girl creates planet for school" scale of things. But I guess such worries are less to the forefront of a young reader's mind, and this will be a worry-free slice of jolliness. I mean, the book has a sequel on the way so no reader need worry about Sky getting her way, just yet at least...

Once again, I wish that there were a "maybe" option for the opinion page. This book is absolutely hilarious and the characters sound so real. They almost talk exactly like my own UKS2 students. I can actually picture my students as the characters in the book. (No, I am not saying that my students are aliens.) There is also the added benefits of it covering some topics that are related to the curriculum.

This sounded like such a fun book and I was super excited to get to read it - even if I am a lot older than the recommended reading age.

I really loved the illustrations by Fred Blunt, they were run and really helped add something to the story.

It wasn't quite what I was expecting if I'm honest. It was fun and interesting but it felt like it was lacking something. I can't really explain what, but I felt there was something just out of reach to make it a really enjoyable read.

It's clearly a commentary on the political landscape, and what we're doing to the planet, but I felt it was neither one thing nor another. It's not a ram-it-down-your-throat preachy kind of book, but nor does it have a light touch, it felt like it was stuck somewhere in between.

Yes it is a bit of fun, but there's a deeper meaning to this book than just fun. It's about friendship and community and showing that humanity isn't all bad.

I did find it a bit disappointing but it did get better as it went along. I love reading kids books, in fact some of my best reading experiences as an adult have been with kids books because I feel they can transcend age groups and you get different things out of it. But I think this is one book that is better in younger hands. They probably won't take things as seriously or look at things as deeply as I did, and will just enjoy it for what it was.