Book review by Aarene Storms: Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth 

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Foster-kid Prez Mellows doesn't talk much, but his foster family doesn't mind because they are all really LOUD. One night when the family is being LOUD, Prez hears the doorbell and answers it.

In walks a very weird looking fellow called Sputnik who wears a kilt, a backpack, a leather aviator helmet, and a pair of scissors. Sputnik introduces himself to the family, and everyone shakes his hand... and that's when Prez figures out that everybody but him thinks that Sputnik is a dog.

Sputnik isn't a dog. Sputnik is an alien, and only Prez understands what Sputnik is saying!

Adventures ensue. Sputnik and Prez hijack a bus, surf on gravitational waves, and use the TV remote to rewind cows. They try to jailbreak Prez's granddad, but end up liberating a bunch of juvenile delinquents instead. When they finally locate the granddad, Prez learns things, and Sputnik completes his mission... mostly.

Recommended for readers ages 8 and up.


The events may not have happened; still, the story is true. --R. Silvern

Aarene Storms, youth services librarian
Richmond Beach and Lake Forest Park Libraries, KCLS astorms@kcls.org