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Alien Adventures #1
Aliens Ate My Homework
IT'S THE WEIRDEST ALIEN INVASION EVER!
"I cannot tell a lie," says Rod Allbright. And it's the truth. Ask him a question, and he's bound to give you an honest answer. Which is why when his teacher asks what happened to last night's math assignment, Rod has to give the only answer he can: "Aliens ate my homework, Miss Maloney!"
Of course, no one believes Rod this time, so they don't bother to ask him why the aliens are here—which is just as well, since he is sworn to silence about their secret mission; and the fact that he has been drafted to help them!
"I cannot tell a lie," says Rod Allbright. And it's the truth. Ask him a question, and he's bound to give you an honest answer. Which is why when his teacher asks what happened to last night's math assignment, Rod has to give the only answer he can: "Aliens ate my homework, Miss Maloney!"
Of course, no one believes Rod this time, so they don't bother to ask him why the aliens are here—which is just as well, since he is sworn to silence about their secret mission; and the fact that he has been drafted to help them!
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
August 27, 2024
Reread as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Belongs in the hands of a younger reader, but I'm gonna reread the whole series for nostalgia's sake before I put it in a Little Free Library.
This book is very silly, in the best way. It's got a bit of Star Trek sendup to it (the later series even more so), but mostly it's one of those 'ordinary kid accidentally gets involved in Adventure' stories which, especially when you are yourself a kid, are so much fun. There's some juvenile humor (the aliens have somehow decided that 'booger' is an absolutely devastating Earth epithet), but also some real heart.
As an aside, it's kind of wild to pick up a book from 1993 and get:
- A member of the cast using it/its pronouns, who specifically mentions that using 'he' or 'she' for it would be extremely rude
- "If you try to protect children, why do you let them live where people are shooting at each other all the time?"
- "Biology is strange and wonderful, and not subject to moral judgement, Young Rod Albright."
- The captain and his science officer bunking together (see above re: Star Trek sendup)
But then again, Bruce Coville's always been great.
This book is very silly, in the best way. It's got a bit of Star Trek sendup to it (the later series even more so), but mostly it's one of those 'ordinary kid accidentally gets involved in Adventure' stories which, especially when you are yourself a kid, are so much fun. There's some juvenile humor (the aliens have somehow decided that 'booger' is an absolutely devastating Earth epithet), but also some real heart.
As an aside, it's kind of wild to pick up a book from 1993 and get:
- A member of the cast using it/its pronouns, who specifically mentions that using 'he' or 'she' for it would be extremely rude
- "If you try to protect children, why do you let them live where people are shooting at each other all the time?"
- "Biology is strange and wonderful, and not subject to moral judgement, Young Rod Albright."
- The captain and his science officer bunking together (see above re: Star Trek sendup)
But then again, Bruce Coville's always been great.
March 6, 2023
IT. HOLDS. UP.
March 4, 2015
I think the thing that sustains this kind of book is the dialogue. It reminds me of the schoolyard, when a lot of boys would spend half their recess just arguing about something, and putting a lot of energy into putting each other down and making sarcastic remarks. So Colville's aliens are especially good at sarcasm and put-downs. The aliens say things like "We have been sent to this miserable back-water of a planet," and "you are a very troubled people, we feel sorry for you." They make all kinds of threats and pretty much boss the main character around. At one point the alien Grakker says "Surrender your ship and your crew, or else it's time for a barbecue." The aliens treat the main character kind of like a bully who needs you to do his homework for him.
Oh another crazy detail about the aliens is that they have these translator things inside their heads, and they're always messing with them. This one alien changes personality from aggressive to diplomatic, based on which translator module he has in, but he's still saying the same crazy stuff regardless of which module is stuck in his noggin. I like this one alot more than some of the other Bruce Coville books I've read, where there isn't as much going on because there's less characters. I think the zany cast of characters, each with their own voice, and kooky things to say, keeps Aliens Ate My Homework interesting.
Anyway, Colville doesn't let the dialogue play forever. There's constant action and every character is totally absurd. There's a long dialogue between the aliens and the main character when they first land, and while this is going on, the aliens reveal themselves one by one, waiting until particularly wacky moments. It's almost like a series of jokes, where there's all this buildup then another alien appears and it's like a punchline, "oh man I can't believe there's another of these crazy aliens." You also spend a lot of time inside the main character's head, and his thoughts are needed to explain things, like how his little brother and little sister renamed themselves after a characters in a Doctor Seuss book, or how this kid that bullies him at school deserves the title of worst bully ever.
Oh another crazy detail about the aliens is that they have these translator things inside their heads, and they're always messing with them. This one alien changes personality from aggressive to diplomatic, based on which translator module he has in, but he's still saying the same crazy stuff regardless of which module is stuck in his noggin. I like this one alot more than some of the other Bruce Coville books I've read, where there isn't as much going on because there's less characters. I think the zany cast of characters, each with their own voice, and kooky things to say, keeps Aliens Ate My Homework interesting.
Anyway, Colville doesn't let the dialogue play forever. There's constant action and every character is totally absurd. There's a long dialogue between the aliens and the main character when they first land, and while this is going on, the aliens reveal themselves one by one, waiting until particularly wacky moments. It's almost like a series of jokes, where there's all this buildup then another alien appears and it's like a punchline, "oh man I can't believe there's another of these crazy aliens." You also spend a lot of time inside the main character's head, and his thoughts are needed to explain things, like how his little brother and little sister renamed themselves after a characters in a Doctor Seuss book, or how this kid that bullies him at school deserves the title of worst bully ever.
September 29, 2020
On a whim I reread this book. It was one of my favorites as a child and was very formative for me. With J.K. Rowling deciding that 2020 was a good time to implode her career, or at least her reputation, I've been curious about some of the other things I read when I was younger.
Bruce Coville wrote a wide range of children's books in the 90s that made him and such other authors like K.A Applegate and R.L Stein a kind of literary ground zero for Scifi/Fantasy/Horror fans. Unlike the authors of Goosebumps and Animorphs, Coville tended to write small series of around five books or so.
Now, in the 90s the Pokemon TV show was considered satanic and the United States president was feuding with The Simpsons over some "family values" thing, so your parent's weird hangups would constrain some of the media you could have. But no one cared what you read so long as you read at all, and you were out of everyone's hair for an hour. This is why Coville was able to openly condemn wasteful capitalistic consumption in a book about your teacher being a grey alien, or put LGBT themes in this book from 1993 about aliens eating your homework, and no one noticed but the kids. If you were a smarter kid than me anyway (I will explain below).
So in this book young Rod meets a variety of aliens on a mission to find a dangerous alien criminal hiding in Rod's town. The gang includes:
Grakker, aka What if Captain Kirk was Shrek
Snout, a sort of peaceful psi adept
Tar Gibbons, non-binary warrior monk
Phil, your houseplant if you knew how to care for it
Madame Pong, probably the glue holding the team together
I either forgot, or just plain didn't notice when I was 8, that Grakker and Snout are a same sex couple. I'm surprised at myself a little bit that this went over my head as a kid, I read this series many times... I should probably reread the rest of these as this was pretty fun. I will point out that the use of it/its pronouns for Tar Gibbon's seems kind of... dated maybe? Though it is from 1993. Overall the aliens are probably the highlight of the book, they are very colourful characters and I had a good time rediscovering this.
I had fun here and will reread the rest.
Bruce Coville wrote a wide range of children's books in the 90s that made him and such other authors like K.A Applegate and R.L Stein a kind of literary ground zero for Scifi/Fantasy/Horror fans. Unlike the authors of Goosebumps and Animorphs, Coville tended to write small series of around five books or so.
Now, in the 90s the Pokemon TV show was considered satanic and the United States president was feuding with The Simpsons over some "family values" thing, so your parent's weird hangups would constrain some of the media you could have. But no one cared what you read so long as you read at all, and you were out of everyone's hair for an hour. This is why Coville was able to openly condemn wasteful capitalistic consumption in a book about your teacher being a grey alien, or put LGBT themes in this book from 1993 about aliens eating your homework, and no one noticed but the kids. If you were a smarter kid than me anyway (I will explain below).
So in this book young Rod meets a variety of aliens on a mission to find a dangerous alien criminal hiding in Rod's town. The gang includes:
Grakker, aka What if Captain Kirk was Shrek
Snout, a sort of peaceful psi adept
Tar Gibbons, non-binary warrior monk
Phil, your houseplant if you knew how to care for it
Madame Pong, probably the glue holding the team together
I either forgot, or just plain didn't notice when I was 8, that Grakker and Snout are a same sex couple. I'm surprised at myself a little bit that this went over my head as a kid, I read this series many times... I should probably reread the rest of these as this was pretty fun. I will point out that the use of it/its pronouns for Tar Gibbon's seems kind of... dated maybe? Though it is from 1993. Overall the aliens are probably the highlight of the book, they are very colourful characters and I had a good time rediscovering this.
I had fun here and will reread the rest.
November 5, 2012
So, we had a family trip to make today and I wanted to find an audiobook we could share with my family, particularly my 7 year old. He is doing reading bingo at school and he needed to listen to an audiobook. After some searching in the digital download of my library I found this highly recommended book.
While my family did enjoy listening to the book and it held our interest, it is very much geared to a young audience. Even at 7 years old I would recommend this book be read/listened to in short doses, as it just seemed nearly too much all at once. The narrator did do an excellent job and provided several very definable voices. The writing style was perfect for a 7-9 year old. My 10 year old son found it enjoyable, but my 13 year old daughter just found it to be okay -- she was glad when it was over. My wife and I found it to be okay. So, for a young 7-9 year-old boy I would give it 3-4 stars, but for anyone older I would drop down to 2 stars.
While my family did enjoy listening to the book and it held our interest, it is very much geared to a young audience. Even at 7 years old I would recommend this book be read/listened to in short doses, as it just seemed nearly too much all at once. The narrator did do an excellent job and provided several very definable voices. The writing style was perfect for a 7-9 year old. My 10 year old son found it enjoyable, but my 13 year old daughter just found it to be okay -- she was glad when it was over. My wife and I found it to be okay. So, for a young 7-9 year-old boy I would give it 3-4 stars, but for anyone older I would drop down to 2 stars.
November 27, 2007
Th book is about a boy that in an axcident he know tiny aliens. But the problem is that they it his homework and the boy can not lie.When he go to the school and they ask him what happen with his homework he said that "aliens ate my homework". Does aliens were in the earth because they were looking for a criminal alien that was in the earth like a human.The boy help the aliens to trap the criminal alien.
July 27, 2021
Doing my summer best to revisit this seemingly absurdly titled trilogy and wouldn't you believe it, it's pretty dang magic. What works beyond its entertaining story is the real craft that was put into creating these larger-than-life characters. There are fantastic elements of science and creativity afoot, which makes each one a delight to spend some time with. Plus at its heart is a pretty profound philosophical underpinning.. the idea that empathy is the greatest virtue and cruelty the greatest sin? That's pretty profound stuff. If I remember correctly I enjoyed the series with increasing satisfaction as it progressed and look forward to the next two books.
Read
June 25, 2021Good fun from my childhood. I was surprised by all the stuff that I missed. I shouldn't be, but I was: The boy's father leaving the family. The gender non-conforming alien. Stuff like this. Nice job, Mr. Coville.
***
"I thought we had made it clear that this was very dangerous," she said.
"Then why are you dragging me into this? I'm just a kid."
"Does that exempt you from doing what is necessary?" she asked, sounding puzzled.
"On this planet we save stuff like that for grown-ups. We try to protect kids."
Madame Pong was silent for a moment. Finally she said, "I don't understand. If you try to protect children, why do you let them live where people are shooting at each other all the time?"
***
Good question, Madame Pong.
***
"I thought we had made it clear that this was very dangerous," she said.
"Then why are you dragging me into this? I'm just a kid."
"Does that exempt you from doing what is necessary?" she asked, sounding puzzled.
"On this planet we save stuff like that for grown-ups. We try to protect kids."
Madame Pong was silent for a moment. Finally she said, "I don't understand. If you try to protect children, why do you let them live where people are shooting at each other all the time?"
***
Good question, Madame Pong.
May 1, 2015
My students loved this book! It is suspenseful, it is funny, and it is relateable. One day an alien spaceship comes crashing through Rod's bedroom window. They demand that he helps them to find a missing part of their ship so that they can continue with their mission of finding an intergalactic criminal, then re-enlarge their ship and return home. At first Rod is intimidated and annoyed by the little creatures, but they soon become friends. This story tells about their adventures of figuring out the criminal's disguise, as well as their attempts to capture and reprimand him. Some of the language is a bit older, or uncommon, so I found myself paraphrasing a bit, but this is definitely one that I will be reading again next year.
December 17, 2009
aliens crash through the window and land in a paper mache valcano. the two twins try to grab the ship but Grakker jumps out and grabs a ray gun and points it at the twins. so far i have heard he got his ear pierced and a boy took his alien. this is a good book. i reccomend this all the children.
August 24, 2015
Just reread this for the first time in 20 years. Still love it.
ETA: Apparently the default edition for this book is the audio version. No, I didn't listen to it. I read the paperback when it first came out in early 90s and most recently I read the eBook.
ETA: Apparently the default edition for this book is the audio version. No, I didn't listen to it. I read the paperback when it first came out in early 90s and most recently I read the eBook.
August 2, 2019
I loved this book as a kid and its still a really good book! I think this is the first book I ever read with a non binary character, though its not exactly the representation you would want.
Also, reading this as an adult, are Snout and Gracker a couple?! Im just gonna assume yes. 👽💖👾
Also, reading this as an adult, are Snout and Gracker a couple?! Im just gonna assume yes. 👽💖👾
July 25, 2023
So I am amazed by the book all tho its a nerd book but it is sad that the aliens had to leave rod so yea
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2022
This book has been staring at me from a shelf in my tiny school library for a couple of months now, captivating me with its title. I don't have the faintest idea why, but the title, juvenile sort of joke, "Aliens ate my homework!" just inexplicably makes me feel nostalgic.
Aliens Ate My Homework is the fun and exciting tale of a kid helping some stranded aliens catch an intergalactic criminal and repair their broken ship. For some reason, this reminds me of like an 80s or 90s straight-to-video B-movie, like Critters or Munchie, except without the excess of violence or horror. I can't really explain why, but I just feel like Jim Wynorski or Stephen Herek would have directed the hell out of an adaptation of this.
I may be a full grown adult, but I had a lot of fun reading this book. I wish I'd read it when I was a kid, I think I probably would have absolutely loved it. It's full of colorful characters, neat little sci-fi gadgets/concepts and an exciting story that goes a lot of different places. It's not just one gimmick, if you know what I mean. (Books like Bunnicula come to mind. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's really only got one gag. A vampire bunny.) This book has lots of tricks up its sleeve. It's also--as other reviewers have pointed out--pleasantly socially conscious about a lot of things. That's a relief. This might be a fun alternative to a book like Indian in the Cupboard, a book where a young lad finds some tiny, toy-like companions that he must care for. Only--this one is far more interesting, (I.E. it has more laser beams.) and like I mentioned, has more going on than that.
For kids, this is a must. If you're a kid at heart, you can enjoy it, too.
Aliens Ate My Homework is the fun and exciting tale of a kid helping some stranded aliens catch an intergalactic criminal and repair their broken ship. For some reason, this reminds me of like an 80s or 90s straight-to-video B-movie, like Critters or Munchie, except without the excess of violence or horror. I can't really explain why, but I just feel like Jim Wynorski or Stephen Herek would have directed the hell out of an adaptation of this.
I may be a full grown adult, but I had a lot of fun reading this book. I wish I'd read it when I was a kid, I think I probably would have absolutely loved it. It's full of colorful characters, neat little sci-fi gadgets/concepts and an exciting story that goes a lot of different places. It's not just one gimmick, if you know what I mean. (Books like Bunnicula come to mind. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's really only got one gag. A vampire bunny.) This book has lots of tricks up its sleeve. It's also--as other reviewers have pointed out--pleasantly socially conscious about a lot of things. That's a relief. This might be a fun alternative to a book like Indian in the Cupboard, a book where a young lad finds some tiny, toy-like companions that he must care for. Only--this one is far more interesting, (I.E. it has more laser beams.) and like I mentioned, has more going on than that.
For kids, this is a must. If you're a kid at heart, you can enjoy it, too.
March 26, 2021
Is it unfair to rate and review a book you haven't read since you were 8? Probably. But I'll justify it by saying that the impact a book has on you as a child far outweighs the adult sensibilities you might bring to bear in assessing its objective quality. Yeah, that's it.
Bruce Coville was my favorite author up until I was in middle school. I was reading his work up until the second I picked up Stephen King's Carrie (signifying my transition into "adult" reading material). It was always hard for me to say which genre treatment I preferred: his fantasy works (The Unicorn Chronicles, the Magic Shop books), his horror series (the Nina Tanleven ghost stories, Camp Haunted Hills), or his science fiction (My Teacher is an Alien, this). Whatever his milieu, Coville always approached his stories with humor, humanity, and a sense of adventure. They were the perfect books to transport you to another world--fun, but thematically complex and dimensional, with well-rounded characters who didn't always make the right decisions, but always grew and changed as a result of their mistakes.
As a kid, I was chubby myself, so I identified with Rod. I was also obsessed with UFOs, so the idea of getting wrapped up in a benevolent (though sometimes grumpy) group of aliens' intergalactic conflicts was the stuff of dreams. For a time Aliens Ate My Homework was my favorite Bruce Coville book, except at the times it was The Dragonslayers or Goblins in the Castle or Into the Land of the Unicorns or....(fade out)
Bruce Coville was my favorite author up until I was in middle school. I was reading his work up until the second I picked up Stephen King's Carrie (signifying my transition into "adult" reading material). It was always hard for me to say which genre treatment I preferred: his fantasy works (The Unicorn Chronicles, the Magic Shop books), his horror series (the Nina Tanleven ghost stories, Camp Haunted Hills), or his science fiction (My Teacher is an Alien, this). Whatever his milieu, Coville always approached his stories with humor, humanity, and a sense of adventure. They were the perfect books to transport you to another world--fun, but thematically complex and dimensional, with well-rounded characters who didn't always make the right decisions, but always grew and changed as a result of their mistakes.
As a kid, I was chubby myself, so I identified with Rod. I was also obsessed with UFOs, so the idea of getting wrapped up in a benevolent (though sometimes grumpy) group of aliens' intergalactic conflicts was the stuff of dreams. For a time Aliens Ate My Homework was my favorite Bruce Coville book, except at the times it was The Dragonslayers or Goblins in the Castle or Into the Land of the Unicorns or....(fade out)
February 6, 2018
Aliens Ate My Homework by BRUCE COVILLE
Aliens are in search of an intergalactic criminal of the worst order, guilty of cruelty, and it’s up to “klutzy” Rod Allbright to assist in attempts to capture him, while wrangling twin toddler siblings, Thing One and Thing Two. The twins insisted on the new names after reading Dr. Seuss, but agreed to a good-night “bop” with a stuffed toy instead of a kiss. Sweet kids.
It’s a wild adventure, full of humor and insights, and will be a movie sometime soon, with scenes I want to see.
A bit of wisdom: Aliens see us earthlings as “a very troubled people.”
“. . . an intelligent being who takes pleasure in causing pain to others . . . is considered dangerously bent. . .. empathy is the heart of civilization.”
“You shouldn’t ignore kids.”
Happy reading!
Aliens are in search of an intergalactic criminal of the worst order, guilty of cruelty, and it’s up to “klutzy” Rod Allbright to assist in attempts to capture him, while wrangling twin toddler siblings, Thing One and Thing Two. The twins insisted on the new names after reading Dr. Seuss, but agreed to a good-night “bop” with a stuffed toy instead of a kiss. Sweet kids.
It’s a wild adventure, full of humor and insights, and will be a movie sometime soon, with scenes I want to see.
A bit of wisdom: Aliens see us earthlings as “a very troubled people.”
“. . . an intelligent being who takes pleasure in causing pain to others . . . is considered dangerously bent. . .. empathy is the heart of civilization.”
“You shouldn’t ignore kids.”
Happy reading!
February 13, 2018
I'm not sure why or how my mother picked this book up (we were living in South America at the time), but I do remember clearly it was the second chapter book we read together, and in subsequent years when my parents despaired over my science fiction obsession, I tried once or twice to remind them that the hook was set deep and early by reading several pages of this book together each morning before the school bus came, when I was a brand-new kindergartner.
Rod Albright is a great character and the latter books get a little more deep, but Coville's vivid descriptions and dialogue are great for any grade-schoolers.
Rod Albright is a great character and the latter books get a little more deep, but Coville's vivid descriptions and dialogue are great for any grade-schoolers.
March 6, 2018
This book will be coming out in movie form so I wanted to read it for possible use in my Book & a Movie program through work. It is definitely writing for kids. At one point I was thinking of not continuing it but then it took off, and I read it rather quickly. There many other children's books that have a bit more in the way of quality writing, but I think this may have been aimed at reluctant readers that do not require that. Having said that, I know that Coville is a popular author and well-liked by many.
March 5, 2019
This book held up a lot better than I thought it would. This review is probably pretty biased since I loved Bruce Coville and he was probably my first introduction to common science fiction themes. Yes, this book contains lots of cliches. Yes, a lot of science fiction themes are introduced at a simple level. But there was a lot more science fiction themes introduced than I remember. There were some pretty clever parts. This was the original science fiction adventure book that I loved without being the science fiction/horror mashup that was so popular. And I still stand by these books today.
February 8, 2021
Holds up! There’s one discussion of a genderless alien’s pronouns that would be written differently today (I hope), and a little bit of fat shaming at the beginning, but mostly just good fun throughout. Several points made me laugh out loud. There’s a couple plotlines I wish had more follow-through/nuance (Rod being unable to lie, his relationship with his best friend, his earring), but these are small quibbles.
October 17, 2018
Coville hits the mark in this book with humor and vocabulary that exceeds the reading level, but does not lose the target audience. Even makes some not so subtle societal/political observations. I would say strong 4th grade up to 6th grade readers would enjoy this (heck, anyone... I enjoyed it as an adult, retired teacher).
April 30, 2021
I think this is Bruce's best series. Even though the first book it's quite as good as the later ones in my opinion, the characters and world he creates make this whole series worth a read for kids growing up.
September 24, 2017
funny
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2018
Bruce Coville's books super informed my philosophy on death and values for living without me even realizing it as I read them as a kid.
March 30, 2018
This was one of my FAVORITES.
...from when I was EIGHT.
I don't remember anything serious about it, except I LOVED IT SO MUCH.
...from when I was EIGHT.
I don't remember anything serious about it, except I LOVED IT SO MUCH.
September 18, 2018
Meh. This is read and forget type of book.
January 27, 2019
My family loves listening to Bruce Corville books. Always funny and entertaining.
February 9, 2019
I remember reading this back in middle school and I really enjoyed Coville’s idea of aliens and why they’d be here on Earth. This was another fun read I remember and I hope young readers can still get into this.
July 11, 2019
3.5! As always, Bruce Coville is a delight.
January 9, 2020
An amusing way to spend your afternoon.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews