The Day That Aliens (Nearly) Ate Our Brains

Freddy is desperate to watch a wrestling match but he does not have satellite TV. Fortunately, his neighbour does, and Freddy, with the aid of his friend Sal and various bits of kitchen equipment, intends to latch onto his neighbour's signal to enable him to watch the ultimate title fight. Unfortunately, the signal he receives is not from his neighbour's TV but from a very grumpy alien who plans to take over the world and learn the entire sum of human knowledge by means of eating human brains. So starts Tom McLaughlin's latest book, a fast-paced adventure involving world leaders, NASA, a lollipop lady and helicopters on garden lawns. Will the combined forces of Planet Earth be enough to withstand an alien invasion, or will the alien invasion turn out to be not quite what they were expecting? The cover of the book, with its luminous green, three-eyed alien sets the tone for this adventure. The book is peppered with black and white illustrations and frequent changes of font. Chapters are reasonably short and the alien, known as Alan, speaks English in a peculiarly funny way. The humour (the eating of brains, the effects of cheese and onion pasties on the police chief's digestive system) will appeal to many a newly confident reader and Freddy and Sal are engaging characters who try to sort out the invasion they have inadvertently started. 176 pages / Ages 7+ / Reviewed by June Hughes, school librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 7+