From just up the road to out of this world – we review The Kid Who Came From Space by Ross Welford.
The Kid – The Blurb
A small village in the wilds of Northumberland is rocked by the disappearance of twelve-year-old Tammy. Only her twin brother, Ethan, knows she is safe – and the extraordinary truth of where she is. It is a secret he must keep, or risk never seeing her again.
But that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up.
Together with his friend Iggy and the mysterious (and very hairy) Hellyann, Ethan teams up with a spaceship called Philip, and Suzy the trained chicken, for a nail-biting chase to get his sister back… that will take him further than anyone has ever been before.
Just up the road
So I live in Northumberland and Kielder, where the book is set, is just up the road from me. It did give the book that extra special something being able to place the story and know the locations. I love children’s books about space – they offer adventure and imagination without resorting to magic and just automatically feel a little more grown up. The Kid Who Came From Space was no different starting with an alien abduction on Christmas Eve. There’s certainly no Santas or Christmas stockings as the hunt for missing Tammy continues, so don’t worry it’s definitely NOT a Christmas book.
Aliens, robots and….chickens
I just loved the support cast. Robots learning sarcasm and pet chickens were genius inclusions. There was also humor by the bucket load that adults and kids alike could connect to as well as quite a bit of emotion. It was an original story and one you could certainly get some interesting discussions from. How was Hellyann’s world better/worse than ours? Why is it OK to put elephants in zoos but not humans? Ooooh my book club senses are tingling!
I very much enjoyed The Kid Who Came From Space and have passed it to my eldest to read. Her interest piqued at the mention of Northumberland. A boy protagonist without being smelly or daft, sibling relationships and space but with real emotion. What’s not to love? If you like sci-fi books you could also try Orion Lost or Crater Lake.
