ATOMIC FRINGE

Tweens and an otherworldly robot may be a small town’s only defense against a planet-destroying alien in Friday’s debut middle-grade novel.

A bizarre purple glowing object flying through the dense woods near her Oregon home unnerves 11-year-old Mattie James. She’s reluctant to call it a UFO, or to even mention aliens, but she’s still eager to know what’s out there. Surely, her best friend, Nova Diaz, and the new kid in school, Parker Wu (who has a drone), can help her find out. But the kids—soon joined by Nova’s twin sister and aspiring social media influencer Rora—find much more than they anticipated: a fight between aliens with a strange robot in the mix. The confrontation ends with the robot damaged and missing nearly all of its memory. Mattie and Nova, members of their middle school’s robotics club, think they may be able to fix “Cache,” as Nova dubs the robot. The tweens want to make sure that Earth is safe from an extraterrestrial creature that Cache claims is powerful enough to annihilate the planet (“This situation is suboptimal”), but covert alien-hunting government agents may foil their plans. Friday’s story boasts a wonderfully diverse cast, including Auntie Taj, a 3-D animator watching her beloved niece Mattie while the girl’s parents are away; Rora, who, quite unlike her sister, is one of the most popular kids in school; and the intriguing aliens, both good and evil. The story makes room for several nods to SF pop culture, especially the Star Wars franchise (there’s a broken robot in a backpack and a crucial hologram recording). It’s all in service of a boisterous narrative (boasting stellar action sequences) of friends sticking together. It’s convincing, too; Mattie, Nova, and the others are realistically aware of their skill sets and their limits as they overcome such obstacles as nosy government types and school detention.

Extraordinary characters headline this brisk, unputdownable SF romp.