Synopsis
Jason is having a bad day. The kind of day when you just don't feel like yourself. Only for Jason, it's not just a feeling. He really isn't himself.
Not any more.
Who is he? That's the problem. Jason isn't sure. And it's not just him. Everyone in town is acting weird. His friends. His parents. Everyone. Billington is usually such a normal town. As Jason is about to discover, nothing will ever be normal again.
Publishers Weekly
Jason Miller's life is like a Norman Rockwell paintinghis parents enjoy woodworking and barbecues; his friends all play Little League; and his town, he says, is so uneventful that "whenever I heard people talk about someone going nowhere fast, I figured they were headed here." Why, wonders Jason, is everyone so insipidly happy? And why do some people need injections every month, but others don't? Shusterman (The Eyes of Kid Midas) delivers a science fiction page-turner in a classic mold: Jason realizes his town houses 30 extraterrestrial familiesand his is one of them. They are scouts, prepping the earth for an invasion that is now imminent. Where do Jason's loyalties really lie? Cyber weaponry and strange bodily transformations keep the action speedy, and Jason's puppy love (a brash pitcher named Paula) rounds out the plot convincingly. Finally, the hero comes to empathize with the small-town cheer that once repulsed him. Pretty flowers and the taste of home cooking win out over the temptations of super-intelligence and world domination, proving that anatomy is not destinyeven if your parents are aliens. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)