Stuck On Earth by David Klass

Ketchvar III has a mission to do. His mission: Through a fourteen year old boy find out whether the earth is worth saving or should be put out of their misery. The reason for all of this is because there is another planet, a peaceful planet that is being threatened by a supernova that might any minute destroy their home. This is a consideration of course but Ketchvar's goal supersedes that. He needs to make sure the planet Earth's natives are worth letting go.

Ketchvar is a snail. Yes, he is a snail but as he went up a random fourteen year old named Tom Filber's nose and brain and eventually took over his mind I can imagine him as Tom but more robotic. They actually use robots for most of their needs because of the no hands thing. Ketchvar is very formal in everything he says and I would hear his voice in my head like a nerdy kid who is very polite and formal.

"Whatever you're after," he gasped quickly. "The key. The formula. The stuff. I know where they've hidden it. I can get it for you. You think I won't because I love the human race? Hah! I hate them all. I have more in common with you. Let's work together. Tell me what you want and I'll get it. We'll split the take. Fifty-fifty. Deal?" I reach his chin.

He uses Tom for advice when traversing his new life. Tom is not so very polite. He can best be described as a awkward teenager with too much testosterone. He was a bit annoying to me. He was rude a lot of the time but you can also feel that he was angry with the world he lived in. Mostly his family. His sister and him are always fighting and even when Ketchvar's nice to her she responds meanly. His father is a drunk but actually he's a very nice father that is just down in the dumps. His mother is totally crazy. She's very violent and yells all the time. You could understand why but I HATE accusatory people. You are not helping.

He is constantly being bullied and harassed and called funnily enough an alien. It seems that the obvious choice is to put these people out of their misery because not only are they an angry lot but they are also very sad beings. He doesn't know what to make of all their sadness but then he discovers Michelle Peabody, the girl next door, which Tom has had a crush on since forever. He sees good in her. It's a good thing there was Michelle. You need a little love interest sometimes but I also liked that other than everyone else she wasn't a jerk and didn't do anything wrong to Ketchvar.

Klass wrote one of my favorites called You Don't Know Me so I expected greatness. I truly liked this book and find that a lot of middle schoolers will like it. Not only that but I know there are a lot of middle grade books for boys which is a stark contrast to the number of teen books for boys. Having never really wanting to read a teen book about aliens its good I started with middle grade otherwise I might have been turned off of reading a book about aliens. But fortunately I wasn't and of course I wasn't! I am reading a Klass book.

I loved the contrast of this alien boy and all the rude people at his school. He calls school a twelve year period of voluntary daily incarceration. I think we can all agree with that statement. Ketchvar is very likable (I like the good guys). He put up with us a lot. I would have destroyed us too if I were him and was greeted to Earth the way he was but he's a peaceful snail so he stays (I can't get over that he is a snail). Seeing everything from his eyes and the lesson of trying to help better the world we live in because it's the only one we got I think will be well received by others reading this book. It's not like the lesson is pointedly there but it's obviously there. It was very entertaining  reading a book through the eyes of someone completely foreign (literally). Klass has created another excellent world and is half way for me to becoming a favorite author of mine. We'll see if I like his other books won't we?