Earth to Charlie

Gr 6 Up—Fourteen-year-old Charlie Dickens spends most of his nights scanning the skies for UFOs, and his days checking the Montana UFO Sightings website—all while concealing these activities from his dad and his classmates, who think he's delusional. Charlie sees alien abduction as his ticket out of small-town Montana and away from bullying at school, a hard-drinking and emotionally absent father, and a grandmother who no longer remembers who he is. He also sees it as his only possibility of reuniting with his mother, whom he believes was abducted by aliens when she disappeared two years earlier. It's not until Charlie meets new kid Seth, who is confident, artistic, and strangely motivated to be Charlie's friend, that Charlie begins to question whether he'd rather explore the mysteries of his own life than the mysteries of the universe. This story fails to deliver on its compelling premise. The majority of the book consists of short, episodic chapters that lack both stakes and action. Dialogue is bland and character development feels surface level, especially in supporting characters (e.g., Charlie's 600-pound neighbor, whose plot arc involves going on a diet after a health scare). While there are some sweet moments between Charlie and Seth, their relationship never evolves all the way to the anticipated romance, and the book feels largely plotless. The mystery of Charlie's mother's disappearance is wrapped up in a realistic fashion but without any true emotional resolution.