I Know What UFO Did Last Summer by Kevin Garone
Publisher: Temor Press
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The alien invasion is upon us! At least, that’s what twelve-year-old Marv thinks when a mysterious craft appears in the woods behind his house. If there’s one thing he’s learned from his trusty alien invasion guidebook, it’s that ETs are just as likely to land in your backyard as they are on the front lawn of the White House.

A plot to take over the planet is the only logical explanation for what’s going on. Why else would a suited pilot chase Marv and his friends through the woods? What else could explain the creepy leech-like creatures attached to the hull of the ship? As if that wasn’t enough, the recently moved-in next-door neighbor girl and her dad seem to be directly connected to the alien conspiracy.

The National Guard won’t take his calls seriously. His family thinks he’s making everything up. Marv and his friends are on their own if they want to stop the invaders from Pluto-unless that mysterious red pickup truck that keeps driving by is somehow involved in all this, too.

But Marv is wrong. The threat is real, but the aliens aren’t. And getting mixed up with the wrong people might still result in an abduction…

Aliens are full of surprises.

One of the reasons why I enjoy reading the middle grade genre so much has to do with the differences between how kids and adults can interpret the same experience. Mr. Garone tapped into this in order to give the audience multiple explanations for why certain things happened, and it made me chuckle to take note of how Marv and his friends understood those events versus what the average adult would probably say about them.

It would have been helpful to have more character development, especially for Marv. His interest in aliens was so strong that it sometimes overshadowed everyone else’s interests. There was a thought-provoking scene later in which another character confronted him for expecting his hobby to always be put first that I wish had been given more time to grow. Marv could be a little selfish at times even if he didn’t always realize he was coming across that way. If this had been explored more, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating.

The plot twists in this book were imaginative and exciting. It was difficult for this reader to find good places to stop when I needed to go do something else for a while due to how often these revelations made me look at the characters in new ways. What an excellent problem to have! Every scene propelled things forward in some way, and I was surprised more than once by what Marvin, Nora, and Jace didn’t see coming.

I Know What UFO Did Last Summer made me wish for a sequel!