{"id":10464,"date":"2025-01-19T14:23:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T18:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10464"},"modified":"2025-01-19T19:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T23:37:09","slug":"book-review-i-know-what-ufo-did-last-summer-by-kevin-garone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-i-know-what-ufo-did-last-summer-by-kevin-garone\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: I Know What UFO Did Last Summer by Kevin Garone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

I Know What UFO Did Last Summer<\/em>\u00a0by Kevin Garone<\/p>\n

Temor Press, April 2025 (not yet released)<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9798991328401<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy: Bookshop.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Part adventure, part sci-fi, and all childlike charm, this book\u00a0<\/em>is for young readers, but perfect for young-at-heart adults.\u00a0 With its irresistible characters, it\u2019s a reminder of a time when you were young and could believe in anything with all your heart, no matter how outlandish it might have been.\u00a0 Simply put, this is magic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the three pre-teen lead characters, Marvin (code name: Gold Leader), Jace (code name: Baller One) and Nora (code name: Space Cadet) that make the story such a joy.\u00a0 The author clearly knows kids and how to write them. His insights are so good, you\u2019ll wonder if the book was written by a teen with advanced writing skills.\u00a0 The main character, Marvin, truly believes aliens will one day infiltrate the earth, so he spends his spare time searching and preparing for them, along with his less enthusiastic friends.\u00a0 Jace and Nora don\u2019t really<\/em> buy into Marvin\u2019s obsession, but searching the night sky during campouts and building an anti-UFO catapult is fun for them.\u00a0 That\u2019s what buddies do: go along with the ideas of each other, in the name of friendship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things change when the three of them do find something unusual in the woods. It isn\u2019t actual aliens, but it does somewhat fit into Marvin\u2019s beliefs.\u00a0 The author wisely doesn\u2019t hide the fact that it isn\u2019t an extraterrestrial invasion, but he has Marvin play his role to the end, and that\u2019s where a lot of the story\u2019s charm comes from.\u00a0 It\u2019s hilarious when adults in the book occasionally ask “what\u2019s wrong with this kid?”” when Marvin accuses them of being from another planet.\u00a0 The answer is, nothing at all.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t written as crazy or stupid, but as a kid who believes, wholeheartedly, in aliens coming to earth.\u00a0 It makes the character interactions between the three kids more powerful than a laser bolt from Han Solo\u2019s blaster, as Jace and Nora are perfect foils to Marvin.\u00a0 Jace has fun with the whole alien thing, but would rather play basketball, while Nora is new and town and just needs a friend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The storyline is quite good: call it sci-fi light.\u00a0 There are a few weird creatures and a bit of teleporting, plus, of course, an EEEEVIL mastermind behind it all.\u00a0 There are some stock elements, but they are used extremely well.\u00a0 A few characters do get chomped by something, but nothing messy.\u00a0 This book is perfect for grades four through seven, roughly. (I\u2019m basing that on my teaching experience)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, since this review is mainly for adults, the bottom line is, this is perfect for those who haven\u2019t let the world dampen the joy of imagination.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good reminder that magic of a sort still does exist, if you still believe.\u00a0 Often, that magic is found in the friendships you make, as the book\u2019s characters discover during their adventure.\u00a0 \u00a0Most definitely recommended!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Know What UFO Did Last Summer\u00a0by Kevin Garone Temor Press, April 2025 (not yet released) ISBN: 9798991328401 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy: Bookshop.org   Part adventure, part sci-fi, and all childlike charm, this book\u00a0is for young readers, but perfect for young-at-heart adults.\u00a0 With its irresistible characters, it\u2019s a reminder of a time when you<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[460,3957,5797,2212,182,5796,5795,5794,226],"class_list":["post-10464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adventure-fiction","tag-alien-invasion","tag-childrens-book-reviews","tag-childrens-fiction","tag-crossover-titles","tag-i-know-what-ufo-did-last-summer","tag-kevin-garone","tag-middle-grade-books","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10464"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10470,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464\/revisions\/10470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}