Boom! by Mark Haddon

Jimbo is a normal kid with normal parents and a normal family. Everything is going just fine, but when Jimbo's sister (Becky) plays a silly prank on Jimbo, he takes it seriously and goes off with his best friend Charlie, spying on teachers! That's when everything goes topsy turvy. When Jimbo and Charlie stick a walkie-talkie under their teacher’s desk, they hear a weird language, which confuses them. They want to investigate further, so they sneak into their teachers’ houses, where they find a weird metal band. Then, one day, while having breakfast at a fast food diner, Jimbo finds a weird man telling him to stop investigating further. If you're a young teenager, would you listen to such a warning? Probably not. It turns violent when 3 men appear on Jimbo's doorstep after the mysterious disappearance of Charlie. Somehow Jimbo and Becky escape and go to the Isle of Skye (this location was on the tin which contained the weird metal band). Here, they see a blue light from a tiny island, and find a kind of portal, through which Jimbo falls into a brand new planet. The weird people live on this planet 'Plonk' and want to abduct humans to restore their race. On the bright side, Jimbo finds Charlie, and now the weird people want them to talk to Earth's authorities about coming to Plonk--otherwise Earth is going Boom! Now it's up to Jimbo and Charlie to stop the Earth from going Boom! This book is good but Mark Haddon should stick to writing books like 'the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' which I liked much more. Mark Haddon is better off writing those kinds of books; he should not try these alien and sci-fiction books. The book is not THAT interesting.


** This book can be found on the Guardian Children's Books site at http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/dec/09/boom-mark-haddon