That Thing In the Sky
By Christopher Francis
ISBN: 9798624706729
152 Pages
Available in Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook, and on Kindle
Trigger Warning: Mentions Cancer, Death of a loved one
Synopsis:
There's nothing in the sky, except that.
Kidnapped by an alien, fifth-graders, Margaret and Bailey fear for their lives and the fate of the world.
Thinking the world is coming to an end, Bailey and Margaret watch a strange object hurtle from the sky. The two nervously investigate the mysterious crash and discover an alien has landed on earth. A teenage farm boy named Sheldon joins them as they try to help the lost creature return to its home. However, they soon realize this alien is not alone.
My Thoughts:
In That Thing In the Sky, childhood friends Bailey and Margaret get the adventure of a lifetime when they face an active alien invasion. What starts out as a normal day quickly unravels when they witness an unknown object crash land on a local farm, discover that the crashing object was an alien craft, and then work with a teenager from the farm to attempt to return the alien to his home.
This story is presented as a fun E.T.-esque children's read, but it is written like an action packed thriller, or a horror story. There are literary jump-scares. One of the children is injured with the mention of blood. During the invasion, they believe that friends and loved ones have been killed. There are several moments where they are clearly afraid for their own lives and safety. The underlying theme is panic and terror.
This children's book also covers the heavy topics of parental illness and loss. One of the children has a parent dealing with cancer. Combined with the stressful situation of the invasion and its associated concerns, that's a lot for little kids. That Thing In the Sky is supposedly targeted at ages 6-11, but I don't know that I would have let my kids read a story like this at that age. When I read this, my first thought was that any child out there who deals with childhood anxiety (which is a very real and valid thing) would definitely not have a good time with this book. For older kids, like 12 and up, some will probably find it quite enjoyable. But I have to question it's place at the targeted age group.
I read this book in e-book format, so I am only able to comment on the book that was presented to me. Which sadly, had several typos and grammatical errors in the form of such things as unnecessary apostrophes and one-sided quotations - basic editing failures. Hopefully these things were addressed before it went to print.
I have not seen the actual book in print, but according to the promotional materials I have seen, the print edition of the book is very dyslexia friendly, with a larger font and cream colored paper. I find this significant to note, because lot of books don't take this into consideration and, as a dyslexic reader myself, I would have loved to have more books like that as a child.
I received an advanced review copy of this book via StoryOrigin in exchange for a fair and honest review, and all opinions are my own.
Parent's Guide:
This story is intended for children, but consider the information in the above review and use parental discretion.