Alien in My Pocket #1: Blast Off!

The premise and story line is interesting to kids. I like that it teaches some science and has an experiment in the end. However, the dialog ruined the book series, there were some typos, the word choice needs improvement or at least definitions, and ultimately even though the main character learns some science in these books, he still hates it which is not a good role model.On page 11, this book miss-spells planet as plant... so the alien came from another plant. My son automatically added in the -et. But errors like that are not acceptable in kids books especially books aimed at K-2 where kids are first learning to read.This book uses advanced words like "civilization" - words that are both difficult to read and difficult to understand conceptually. I would not mind that so much if they at least defined the word, but the book does not define or explain anything beside whatever science concept they want you to learn in the book. So tungsten was defined in this book but not civilization (even though its used many times throughout the series).This book talks about the periodic table and the elements, and particularly tungsten, but it does not really explain it in a way that a first grader with no knowledge of the period table could even possibly understand what they were actually talking about. The other books in the series have the same issue - nothing is really explained enough to understand if you have zero background in the concept. So teach kids what the periodic table and elements are or at least have a book on it for them before reading this story book. We have a periodic table book by DK and one by Usborne.The start of this book is confusing for kids to follow. I had to explain to my son that the mesh screen on the window had fallen down behind a bush - somehow in all those words what actually happened got lost. These books have multiple places where there is so much description going on that kids forget what was going on or why. This seriously impacted reading comprehension. In fact, this book was so unmemorable that kids could not even tell me a summary of what happened. They read it and enjoyed it but could not answer any questions about it.Throughout the book series the language modeled is in poor taste. First there are curse words like dang and even the alien curses using like floofy - but its clearly described as a curse word by the book itself. Second the books includes derogatory words like dunce, weirdo, dumb. etc. Third there is teasing and belittling. Fourth siblings threaten each other including physical harm. The parents also seem to allow a certain degree of this and talk to the kids in less than appropriate ways even joining in on teasing of their own kids. The entire time my son was reading this book, I was pointing out how we don't talk like this, don't put people down like that, and should never treat someone that way etc. My son kept saying I know I know... but what you read and what you watch eventually comes out of your mouth so if I had read the first three books of this series myself before I let my son read them, I would have returned the entire series immediately and got my money back!Finally many behaviors are not what you want your kids to be doing. The neighbor kid does his homework for him and tells him the answers instead of tutoring him to succeed or walking him through the thinking process to solve the problem himself. The kids sneak around and lie especially at school where they ditch class and hide in a closet and then stay on campus after hours to steal supplies from the science lab and they let others take the blame for their mess. Do you want your kid doing any of those things? No. There are little to no consequences for their actions and they don't learn or mature through the process. So these these kids and that alien are not good role models.In the end, these are not books I recommend to anyone because of the poor role models, poor language choices, and lack of reading comprehension. I am sorry that I bought this entire series. My son loved reading them, but we will not be keeping them.

This series is a great adventure for elementary kids and while it is about a 4th grade boy, it is great for girls too! Both my kids love it and may be the spark to getting my 1st grader pumped about reading, as I have no trouble saying its bed/story time. They run for the bedroom! Books in this series are 110-130 pgs, so they are short reads and about 3 chapters a night is perfect. Lots of excitement with Zach and Oliva as they try to teach the alien Amp about earth and help him get home. There is a cool science experiment at the end of every book that has been spot on for what I have around my house and the level of skill for kids. Great book series and you will want to buy all 8 of them. Trust me!

This was a fun book that engaged my kids. They would stop me to ask questions, talk about science, and had an activity that got the neighbor kids involved as well. Chapters are short enough so focus isn’t lost and gives you the option to read 2 or 3 without a large devotion of time. We will be getting book 2.

My first graders loved listening to this book. It is about a fourth grader and there are some bigger science vocabulary words so you could definitely use this book to discuss various science topics with older ages. Good for an enjoyment read in first grade!

I give this 100% it’s an amazing funny book. When I first got this book for a school challenge I thought it would be like a cheesy sci-fi book ! But I got sucked in right when we meet Amp . I like Nate ball’s visualization of Amp the 3 fingered blue alien or Erdian I am so glad I was asked to read this book ! Thank you Nate ball for sharing your amazing story with us!! !😃😀😁😆👍🏻

Ball creates a genuinely entertaining narrative as Zack McGee must save Earth from a pending intergalactic attack by helping his new-found alien friend return home while simultaneously dealing with the havoc having an alien in ones pocket causes. Ball transforms the typical elementary school woes of school work, principal trips, and bullies into a hilarious yarn that only a four-inch alien with some mischievous powers could cause. Amongst the comedy, Ball manages to slip in some science and engineering know-how. Directions to build a bottle rocket are included so you can have your own rocket launching adventure (although there is a lack of instructions regarding how to acquire your own small, blue alien).

So far I find this book very interesting and I love the imagery that is included in the writing. Can’t wait to read more!

From my 10 year old: "Over all, this book was really good, but some parts could have been better. Also, I really didn't like that this book is in a series because it was short enough to be all in one book.

めちゃくちゃ気に入ったようで、すぐに読み切ってしまったようです。シリーズ化してますので、次購入します ^ ^