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Overview
All things must come to an end—even sixth grade. But not all things end happily, and it looks as if Pleskit Meenom’s year as a sixth-grade alien is about to end in catastrophe as Earth is swept by rumors of alien abductions. Soon anti-alien demonstrations erupt outside Pleskit’s school.
Who is behind the rumors? Is there really a secret enemy on the embassy staff? What happens if the mission fails?
When Pleskit disappears, those questions take on new urgency. Desperate to answer them, Pleskit’s friends Tim and Rafaella are forced to team up with Tim’s old enemy, Jordan Lynch, to save the mission...and Earth!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781534487390 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Aladdin |
| Publication date: | 02/08/2022 |
| Series: | Sixth-Grade Alien , #12 |
| Edition description: | Reissue |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.50(d) |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Award-winning illustrator Glen Mullaly’s retro-styled illustrations and comics-inspired fun can be found in bestselling author Bruce Coville’s Sixth Grade Alien middle grade series, puzzle and paper-craft work for McDonald’s, publications for Dark Horse Comics, and his own line of fun greeting cards through Northwest Greetings. Glen also worked with Eisner and Inkpot Award–winning comic book artist Ken Steacy on Star Wars children’s books. Glen lives on the west coast of North America with his book-loving wife and their spiral-tailed cat who loves to help Glen with his work by leaving paw prints all over his illustrations whenever she can. Learn more at GlenMulally.com.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1: A Letter Home CHAPTER 1 [PLESKIT] A LETTER HOME
FROM: Pleskit Meenom, on the soon-to-be-distant Planet Earth
TO: Maktel Geebrit, on my beloved home planet, Hevi-Hevi
Dear Maktel:
This will be the last letter I send you from Earth. Things here have taken a shocking turn, and I wanted to let you know about them as soon as possible.
Actually, I am certain you have already heard something about the recent events, whether on the Interplanetary News or from your Motherly One. But I wanted to give you the inside story. It seemed only fair, since you’re going to have to deal with the results yourself before long!
I hope you won’t be too upset.
Fremmix Bleeblom!
Your pal,
Pleskit
Interviews
Meet the Master of Silly Sci-fi!
It's been ten years since Bruce Coville first entertained kids with his far-out, funny My Teacher Is An Alien—and the idea that intelligent life may have landed on planet Earth in the form of a classroom teacher! Now this prolific and immensely popular author has returned to his alien roots with a new series, and this time, the alien is a student. Jamie Levine of Barnes & Noble.com spoke to Bruce Coville about writing I Was A Sixth Grade Alien—as well as the related TV series on the Fox Family Channel. And the warm, witty author lived up to his reputation—he's simply out-of-this-world!
Barnes & Noble.com: Why do you like writing about aliens so much?
Bruce Coville: There are a couple of reasons. The first is that it's what I liked to read about when I was a kid. And one of the things I'm always trying to do is write the book that I wanted to read when I was ten years old. (And until I get it perfect, I'm going to keep on trying!) Well, that's probably what got me started. And when I'd done a little bit of it, I realized that writing about aliens is a really good way to write about human beings. It allows us to see ourselves from the outside. Aliens look at us and say, "Why do you guys do that stuff?" I enjoy having aliens in my books because it's an opportunity for a lot of wacky humor, but also an opportunity, at the same time, to make some comments about the way we as earthlings run the planet.
B&N.com: Do you believe that aliens exist?
BC: Absolutely. I don't necessarily believe that aliens are monitoring us right now and abducting people and doing probes and all that stuff. What I do believe—that I have no question about—is that there is intelligent life on other planets somewhere in the universe. The universe is too big, too diverse—it's inconceivable to me that there's not intelligent life out there.
B&N.com: If you were given the opportunity to meet an alien, is there something you'd want to ask it?
BC: There are a million things I'd want to ask! I would want to know if they'd solved the issues of war and peace on their planet, and if so, how? And I'd ask them how they'd gotten their act together enough to get here. Because we're doing something wrong. I mean we went to the moon 30 years ago, and we haven't been back since. It's stunning to me that we took this huge step and then stepped back as if we were afraid of it. Why we're not colonizing Mars right now is beyond me.
B&N.com: What were you like as a sixth grader? Did you ever feel like an "alien" yourself?
BC: I was a weird kid. But, then again, all sixth graders are a bit weird! One of the reasons I thought I Was A Sixth Grade Alien was such a good title for my new series is because I really think every kid at that age does feel like an alien—you're not a little kid, you're not an adult, you just don't fit in. You have your little planet of sixth grade that you're in, but you still feel like an outsider—you feel like an alien. You feel like you're the only person like you in the class.
B&N.com: I Was A Sixth Grade Alien is also a terrific new TV series on the Fox Family Channel. Tell me about that.
BC: There's a long back story to this—and I think it's a unique one. I originally developed this series as a television concept; it was something I was approached to do. I came up with the basic concept: The aliens contact us, but because they're such a small, unimportant, backwater planet, they only send down one ambassador [to Earth], who brings his kid with him and sends his kid to public school. I developed it for television, and it was never produced, so I took the rights back and the project sat in my desk drawer for about six months. Then, a time came when I needed to get things stirred up again: I was finishing up the last of a set of projects, and my editor had been asking me for a series. Of course I'd always vowed I would never do one of these series where the books are supposed to come out one after another. I've done a lot of series—seven or eight—but they're the type where each book comes out every year or every two years, sometimes every six months, and there are only three or four books in the series. In this case, things have to happen a lot faster, and it's very demanding. And that's of course because I'm writing all the books myself.
So I presented the publisher with the idea and they liked it, and at the same time I was approached by another television producer. So I was simultaneously working on both projects—and the deals happened simultaneously—from the same packet of ideas. Then, by brainstorming with the producers we developed more content, which they used for the series and which I used for the books. At a certain point, we just had to agree to go our separate ways and each do what we were going to do.
B&N.com: So you're not writing any of the scripts for TV?
BC: Not when I have to generate 12 books this year. The TV series is a half-hour sitcom with comedy overtones. With the books, I'm doing adventure with comedy overtones. If you were trying to make a translation, I'd say each book is a feature film while the TV show is more a short story—but the characters are essentially the same. I love the actors they've chosen for the TV series. They're fabulous. And when I'm writing dialogue for the books, I start to hear their voices in my head, and it helps me shape it. It's like songwriters used to do for Broadway years and years ago. They'd write a song for Ethel Merman differently than they'd write a song for Mary Martin. The actors helped shape the songs—it gave structure to them. And having these actors' voices in my head helps me give structure to the dialogue I'm writing for the book versions of the characters.
B&N.com: There are going to be 12 books in the series. Can you tell me about your overall plan for them?
BC: There are going to be 12 free-standing stories. The first seven books are each pretty much an adventure, and within that the relationship between the earth boy and alien boy develops. The adventures, themselves, also set up other things that happen throughout the series. There is going to be some organized conclusion to the alien mission, and that will be resolved in the final book. I am also doing something in this series, which I think is unique: In the first six books, in addition to a full novel, there's a serial that runs at the end of the book (Editor's note: This serial tells the story of what happened to Pleskit, the alien boy, on the last planet where he lived before coming to Earth). And since the books come out pretty quickly one after another, you don't have to wait too long for each next installment. So, the books are longer and in them, I take more time to develop the characters, but the really action-packed, cliffhanger stuff happens in the serial installments.
B&N.com: Do you ever get writer's block? Are you ever afraid that you'll run out of ideas?
BC: I'm never afraid of running out of ideas. I have folder an inch-and-a-half thick that's filled with ideas. Ideas are the easy part of the job. Ideas are all around you. It's all about being aware of them. I do get writer's block sometimes—but not for long periods of time, thankfully. And it usually means that I'm afraid, that I'm blocking myself by being afraid. My writer's block comes from one of two things. One is that I haven't done enough of my groundwork—I haven't worked out the characters or storyline enough. That's one source of potential short-term writer's block. The other is being afraid that I'm not going to be good enough: My biggest fear is letting down my readers. It was easier to write earlier in my career—of course I'm a better writer now—but it was easier then because I didn't have the sense I do now of hundreds of thousands of kids waiting for my next book—and expecting certain levels of performance from me. I don't want to let those kids down.
B&N.com: What kind of advice would you give to kids who say they want to be authors?
BC: I have a few pieces of advice. One is read constantly. Read, read, read, read, read! And two—write, write, write! All kinds of writing but especially keeping a journal. And three—never throw anything away that you've written. I would give my eyeteeth to have a journal from when I was in the sixth grade. Not just for writing kids' books, but just as a sense of understanding yourself and who you are when you're an adult writing. Of course, as an adult writer you develop more technical skills, but as a child, your thoughts are often fresher—and kids have such great ideas. Fourth, and most important—if you're serious about writing, never give up. I went to school with people who were better writers than I was who will never be published because they were never as stubborn as I am.
B&N.com: Well, I know all your fans (myself included!) are glad you never gave up, because your books are fabulous. And so are you. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me.