The Boy from Earth

by Richard Scrimger

Overview

Norbert, the tiny wisecracking alien from Jupiter, gets an emergency phone call from home. His sweetheart, Nerissa, has been kidnapped by an evil giant and placed in the Lost Tower of Lotubmen. He must find and rescue her, but he can't do it alone. Norbert has helped Alan through three earthly adventures. Now the tables are turned, and Norbert needs Alan's help. So Alan, the boy from Earth, comes to Jupiter and finds himself in a strange – and yet in some ways strangely familiar – environment.

Richard Scrimger’s The Nose from Jupiter, A Nose for Adventure, and Noses are Red have won avid fans from Illinois to Italy. Alan is truly an everyboy. He is terrible at sports, is living through his parents’ divorce, and has to contend with bullies and even villains. But he has a secret weapon. Norbert, an alien from Jupiter, has come to Earth and established a home-from-home inside Alan’s nose. It’s from there that the wise-cracking, brave, and irresistible Norbert changes Alan’s life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780887765919
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	11/09/2004
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.13(w) x 7.63(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Richard Scrimger is the award-winning author of seven novels for children, three picture books, and three books for adults. Columns detailing Richard’s adventures in parenthood have been published in The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and Today’s Parent. His first children’s novel, The Nose from Jupiter, won the 10th Annual Mr. Christie’s Book Award. His first adult novel, Crosstown, was short-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. He and his family live in Cobourg, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8-Norbert, a tiny alien, and his Earth friend Alan Dingwall return in this fourth installment in the series. Here, the two pals travel to Jupiter where Alan discovers that Norbert is actually a prince. The evil Black Dey has stolen Norbert's royal girlfriend, and the boys set out to decipher and then enact an ancient prophecy foretelling the Black Dey's downfall at the hands of an earthling. From frogs that quote baseball statistics to the nonverbal communication some youngsters prefer ("Hard to know what to do when a friend is almost crying...I decide to punch him in the shoulder....Then he nods, and pokes me in the stomach. So we're good"), Scrimger knows and plays to his target audience. While Alan's problems with his mother aren't well integrated into the story and the plot is unsubstantiated in places, there are sufficient alien details and slapstick quips to keep even reluctant readers going. Purchase this title if the series has done well in your library; otherwise, try Tor Seidler's Brainboy and the Deathmaster (HarperCollins, 2003) or Quentin Dodd's Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars (Farrar, 2001) for excellent sci-fi fare.-Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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