Weird Kid

4.5★s Weird Kid is a science-fiction novel for children by American author, Greg van Eekhout. Jake Wind has managed to convince his parents to let him attend Cedar Creek View middle school. They'd rather home-school him, because they're worried he'll accidentally shape-shift into something in public. Since about June, there's been an occasional Hum making him feel ill, and his shape-shifting has been unpredictable.

On his first day, he meets Agnes Oakes, who is clearly very smart (she's a Night Kite fan) and they happen to be sitting together when a sinkhole opens up in the schoolgrounds, not the first in Cedar Creek View in the last week, and she spots (and catches a sample of) some goo. Agnes plans to analyse it.

When a scientist from the Collaboratory turns up wanting to question witnesses, Jake talks Agnes out of sharing what she knows more widely, telling her it will be more fun to investigate together: that goo looks uncomfortably like what he melts into when the Hum is at its worst, and being dissected for scientific research holds no appeal.

It's when Agnes calls him to the site of another sinkhole, very early one morning, and they witness what happens to the resident family, that Jake really gets worried. Not long after this, Agnes has figured out Jake's secret: he's an alien life form. She tries to persuade him to learn how to use his power instead of avoiding it.

Soon enough, the pair discovers that the town, perhaps the country, perhaps the whole world is at risk from the goo and, in true adventure story style, it is, of course, up to them to save it. Who would have thought that saving the world involves playing guitar at the Desert Sky Pavilion?

There's plenty of humour in this tale, not the least in Jake's very literal interpretations of language, and the errors that the Imblobsters make. Another fun aspect is how Jake and Agnes find solutions in various back issues of their favourite comics which, as avid fans, they know by heart. This one is clever and funny and carries a nice message of tolerance and acceptance. It's aimed at 8-12 year-olds, but older readers (even those aged sixty-six) will probably enjoy it too.

This unbiased review is from a voice galley provided by NetGalley and Harper Audio. The voice galley is an interesting concept in itself: it is created with a synthetic voice only, so is not a preview of the audio book. Hence the narration can be quite stilted, with strange emphasis. In this case, as the protagonist is an alien life form, it fits quite well. Without access to the print- or e-version, this also means that the spelling in the review may be incorrect.