A Beginner’s Guide to Ruling the Galaxy

I have to confess that although I told the children that we would read this book a chapter each night - I read it to the end myself on the second night ! I then had to pretend that I did not know what was going to happen. It was so look funny and relatable . The main characters were definitely just like some I used to teach. Maybe not really rulers of the galaxy, they just thought they were (or were they ?).
Loved this book, laugh out loud .

This book of full of hilarious hijinks, fast-paced adventure, laugh-out-our quirky humor, and was all around so enjoyable. Interspersed with the extraterrestrial was the poignant moments of friendship, family, and the feeling of belonging. A little bit wholesome and a lot of but hilarious is the perfect blend for middle grade. A long book as well, which means more to love.

Well, this was great fun. Our hero is the kind of boy who likes to keep himself to himself – with reason, we later discover – but the new kid at school, with all her talk of re-enacting "Alien" and having servants, is peculiarly fixated on being with him and around him at all times. The other kid who joined the school at the same time is supposed to be her brother, although that never once seems likely. Yes, we're in "Third Rock" territory, as aliens have infiltrated, to some extent, and are passing as us. But just who and what and why they are is for the reader to find out...

This moves at a lovely pace, even when being more expository or meaningful and emotional. It also has a success rate with the sense of humour many other books can only dream of – even including Ones for the Adults, like the quote from "Bladerunner" that surely will go over the heads of the target reader, joining the Human League riff. Oh, and the maths teacher's name.

Ultimately it is a fun comedy science fiction book. Yes, it has a lot of human heart at its core, but of course the sci-fi genre only ever wanted to talk about the human condition, and here, we definitely get that a lot. For this is a romp that is also about family, kinship and friendship. I mean, it had better be about something when you consider all that is wrong about the sci-fi – people walking across spaceship hangars during a launch into space, five people somehow in a command unit for four, people lip-reading what must be assumed to have been an alien tongue, etc etc.

It's also a great thing the exuberance of the book lets all that slide, and the fun and heart and cleverness in the comedy and so much else is really quite memorable. A spirited little read, and a four and a half star achievement.