The OUTSIDER: ROSWELL HIGH #1

The first story in a new series set in Roswell, Kansas, traces the uncertain romance between popular high-school senior Liz Ortecho and the handsome but shy loner, Max Evans, who harbors the secret that he is an alien. Original.

Grade 6-9-Alien conspiracy fans will not be disappointed to learn that there really are aliens among us. Michael, Max, and Isabel were hidden on Earth in incubation pods after the famed spacecraft crash of 1947 and adopted by well-intentioned humans who didn't know their history. Now attending a high school in New Mexico, the teens are trying to remain unnoticed by Project Clean Slate, whose purpose is to capture aliens living in the United States. All would be fine except that Max has fallen in love with a human classmate, Liz, and is compelled to heal her with his alien ability when she is shot and sure to die without his intervention. This act has brought unnecessary attention in their direction and now they must protect their secret. Liz's best friends Maria and Alex join the group after they struggle with their own fears and concerns over what doing the right thing means. Readers who like a little romance in their science fiction might enjoy this novel, which introduces all of the characters and lays the groundwork for future struggles to keep their anonymity. Hard-core fans of the genre might find the plot unwieldy and difficult to believe as it offers glimpses of alien "magic" without any explanation.
Tracey Firestone, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport,
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Roswell High series gets off to a slow start with this rambling tale introducing a trio of teen aliens and several of their human pals. Long on extraneous dialogue and short on action, the story is set in Roswell, N.M., renowned for an alleged UFO landing in 1947. Hours after a military spokesperson had proclaimed that the flying disk had crashed in the desert, a second announcement insisted that the object was only a weather balloon. But Max, his sister Isabel and their friend Michael know better: they are the orphaned survivors of the spaceship crash, who eventually hatched from incubation pods that had protected them for years. Liz, the prettiest girl at Roswell High, has long admired handsome, quiet Max from a distance. But she gets a close-up look at just how special he is when his superhuman hands heal her from a gunshot wound to the stomach in the opening scene. Liz and two classmates are soon in on the aliens' secret identity, which the mean-spirited Sheriff Valenti, a key member of an alien-hunting organization (Project Clean Slate), suspects. Will he discover the truth about their background? Given this series' wishy-washy posture between mainstream and science fiction, many readers may not stick around long enough to find out. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.