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Alien Summer
Area 51 Interns #1
by James S Murray & Carsen Smith
Penguin Workshop, $16.99, 240pp
Published : March 2022

From the mind of Murr from the Impractical Jokers comes a new hilarious, action-packed series about a world of bizarre creatures, wacky gadgets, and four kid interns at the most interesting place on Earth: Area 51!

It’s the first day of summer vacation, and Viv Harlow just wants to relax with her friends at the beach before they all go to different high schools next year. She is definitely not interested in visiting her mom’s office, even if Director Harlow works at the famous Area 51. But when an alarm sounds beneath the secret base and a whole race of aliens escape, she’s about to get much more than she bargained for. Viv, Charlotte, Ray, and Elijah (who Viv is totally NOT crushing on) will have to work together, gear up with gadgets, and even protect a baby alien to save the day and defend Area 51.

The debut middle-grade series from Murr of the Impractical Jokers, Area 51 Interns is filled with enough high-tech hijinks, bizarre creatures, and laugh-out-loud humor (plus an extra color insert full of gadgets) to make even alien skeptics hooked for more!

Viv Harlow really wants to spend the first day of summer at the lake with her from Charlotte and maybe work up courage to talk to her crush Elijah but her mom has other ideas - it is “Take Your Kids To Work Day” and Viv is headed for Area 51 with her mom. To her surprise not only is Charlotte there, so is Elijah as well as her next door neighbor Ray. But what starts as a boring day in a boring office suddenly turns not so boring after all as an alarm goes off, the boring office transforms into a sleek, control center and aliens burst into the room taking everyone there prisoner. Viv’s mother helps her, Charlotte and Ray escape through the air ducts and they find that Eiljah has escaped as well. The kids band together, find some interesting weapons - and a baby alien - and set off to rescue their parents.

What a fun romp this was. The target audience is middle school kids and I know I’d have loved books like this when I was that age - 12-13 - and even as an adult I throughly enjoyed the adventure. Given the improbable situation, the kid all react and act in believable ways.  There are some disturbing undertones that adults will pick up on, such a sentient alien held prisoner against their will,  but I doubt many kids will pick up on that and will just enjoy the pure adventure of kids saving both the day and their parents. There is some danger and near misses but no gore or bloody violence.  I am looking forward to the next one in the series which is already queued up on my tablet.  Recommended ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

For more titles by James S Murray click here
For more titles by Carsen Smith click here

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