The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away
By: Ronald L. Smith
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Children's Book Group
Clarion Books
Children's Fiction
272 pages
Publish date 19 February 2019
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This is a book I wouldn't normally read. I am not too much into sci-fi. I do have to admit that it was well done. I couldn't believe how quick I was able to read this book. Before I knew it the book was done. Ronald draws you into the story and you just can't put the book down. I did give this book 4 stars only because growing up in a military family and being married to a military man he didn't give honest details on the base housing and military life. Otherwise I really enjoyed this book.
The book is about a 12 year boy, Simon, who is into UFO's and aliens. He believes he is being used as experiments by them and can't believe that his parents won't believe him. He is able to confide to his friend and his brother's girlfriend. The story continues on and is really good. Is Simon truly being used as an experiment by the aliens? Do his parents ever believe in him? Why does he believe that he is seeing aliens whom he calls Grays.
I recommend this book for your middle schooler to read. You can even read it aloud to a 3rd grader and have some great talks about this subject.

This is a fascinating book that will draw readers in right away. Simon is a character with a lot of heart, curiosity, and spirit. His fear of aliens and his naturally imaginative mind make for a great mix in the narrative, keeping the reader guessing as to what is real and what isn't.

Simon's story that he writes throughout the novel is an interesting parallel that helps show Simon's imagination and creativity. Readers will enjoy Simon's fantasy world just as much as his quest to uncover the truth behind aliens.

The writing is easy and matches Simon's ages well. Young readers will easily see themselves in Simon and will follow along on his journey without needing any prior knowledge of aliens.

The cast of supporting characters are very minimal, but this book is very much about Simon's experience, so not much is felt to be lacking, aside for maybe a stronger counterpart to Simon.

Overall, this is a thrilling, adventurous book and an interesting take on aliens, albeit with a rather abrupt ending that leaves a few questions to be answered.

As a teacher of middle grade students, this book is spot on! It has family drama, alien-esque suspense, and a main character that is totally relatable for children. I whizzed through this novel, and I am anxious to pass it along to my students who will just eat this up. Bravo, Ronald Smith. You truly know what it takes for the making of a great middle grade read.

E ARC from Netgalley.com



Simon lives with his family on an Air Force base in Delaware. His dad is white and his mom is black, but he wishes that everyone just thought of people as humans. After all, the big threat (as everyone knows) is ALIENS. Simon is obsessed with the fact that aliens, particularly the Grays, are going to land on Earth and wreak havoc on the planet. Simon is probably worried about this because he doesn't feel like there is a lot else he can do about his life. His older brother, Edwin, got all the sports genes, and Simon feels his father is disappointed in him. He'd much rather play MMORPGs with his friend Tony, but Tony is in Mexico. Simon also has significant asthma, still wets the bed, and doesn't get along with people at school too well. He is also working on his own epic novel, called Max Hollyoak and the Tree of Everwyn. After a family camping trip, however, Simon is sure that he aliens, in the shape of owls, have attacked him and implanted a chip in his stomach. His parents, concerned about his talk of aliens and his general level of oddness, take him to a psychiatrist who puts Simon on several different kinds of medication. These make Simon feel odd, so he stops taking them without telling his parents. Edwin's girlfriend, Miranda, fans the flames of his alien obsession by taking him to her father's group of people interested in alien abductions, and Simon spends a lot of time obsessing further about the aliens who are supposedly speaking to him. Finally, in a drastic bid to get away from the aliens, he tries to remove the implant from his stomach with scissors. He injures himself badly, and his family is convinced he tried to kill himself. Is Simon hallucinating, or does he have a valid concern about the aliens attacking Earth?

Strengths: I liked that Simon lived on an Air Force base; there should be more books about students from military families. It's also good to see a character who identifies as a "black nerd"; again, not many of these in middle grade literature. There are still some students who believe in aliens, and this was an interesting example of realistic science fiction-- are the aliens real or not?
Weaknesses: Simon is not an attractive character, with his negative attitudes and bed wetting. The whole beginning of the book concentrates on these negative attributes, which make the story start a bit slowly. I also wasn't a fan of Simon's novel being interpolated into the book.
What I really think: I generally like Smith's work, but books about alien invasion (with the exception of the action-packed Falkner's Recon Team Angel books (The Assault, etc.) or Walden's Earthfall trilogy) move very slowly in my library, so I may pass.

My original rating for this book was too generous. I didn't know what I would say in positive light for this book, but at the same time I didn't feel that it deserved the very lowest rating. But when you can't think of anything good to say about a book, when there's literally nothing I even slightly liked, then does it really deserve generosity? Especially when it's supposed to be an honest review. I can't think of anything about this book that I enjoyed, so in trying to be positive, I don't think I can maintain honesty.

I didn't hate this book. I just didn't like anything about it. Upon first opening the ARC, the writing was very juvenile. And yes, I understand that this book is a middle grade novel, written for younger kids, but even taking that into account, the writing was over simplified. In addition to the writing, the story was bland. I felt like there was no development of the aliens or the alien story line. It was only Simon getting abducted, and his parents not believing him despite everything. My least favorite part was when Simon had to go to a therapist and was given three prescriptions after his first meeting. I've mentioned it before, but when I went to a therapist, I only got one prescription, after two years of therapy, and it still barely does anything for me. Smith's portrayal of the mental health system was just insulting.

Even worse is that it wasn't just the story that was bland, but the story that the author had Simon write and insert into the story was also bland. Smith wrote two stories in one, inserting a stereotypical fantasy story that had no importance to the plot of the actual story. I had to read five chapters of this 12-year-old's terrible writing, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the aliens or the characters. And then, at the very end when I thought I was rid of everything terrible about this book, he inserts the fantasy story at the very end, further increasing the frustrations I had with this book.

Normally for me, if the book has well-developed characters, I can get past a terrible plot. But when a book has a terrible plot, terrible writing, and badly developed and two-dimensional characters, then there's really nothing left for me to like. Simon was only about aliens and fantasy stuff, and there was barely any development besides that. Simon's friend, who I don't even remember the name of because he was just bad, was a white kid who went around calling everyone "hombre". And for some reason, Simon's brother's girlfriend was BFFs with Simon after meeting once. The dad was just mean, and the mom was defined solely by her love of Simon.

Simon was biracial, and there were periodic comments on this fact, and I took note of that fact. Simon's brother's girlfriend was Brazilian, and a few ethnic foods were mentioned but that was literally it. Smith's attempt at representation was appreciated, but fell flat for me. 

Final Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Overall?
I went into this book really wanting a good alien story, but instead I get thrown into family drama, bad mental health representation, and a 12-year-olds attempt at writing a stereotypical fantasy story that I've read a good 20 times. I found nothing of value in this book, nothing I enjoyed, and every little thing ended up bothering me till no end. I was even able to predict how the book ended, which was just a weird and unnecessarily outlandish ending that didn't connect with the entire rest of the book at all.

Would I Recommend?
Not at all. I didn't enjoy this book, I felt bored by it, I felt insulted by it at certain points, and I just found nothing I could even begin to like in this story. Everything I was hoping for was thrown out the window, in favor of things that didn't really seem to matter at all.

The Owls Have to Take Us Away reminded me a lot of Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets ET meets Aliens in the bizarre fashion that a UFO has arrived on earth and causes a lot of chaos. This was such an invigorating title to read from all of the reactions of each character and they problems caused from them. Some parts were hysterically accurate for some of the characters and even though this is a sci-fi drama type of novel, I actually found this to be quite humorous. Each page was a surprise and new twists and turns happened keeping your eyes glued to the book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. We will definitely consider this title for our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 4 stars!

I will never look at an owl the same way!

I can describe this book in one word - creepy. A story about alien abductions is pretty much all round creepy - this is a subject matter which freaked me out as a kid and gave me nightmares and still does!

Apart from that, this is a well written story about a boy, Simon, who believes he is abducted by aliens - or is it mental health issues he is suffering from? I would have preferred to know from the outset which one, as I was unsure right until the end. I enjoyed the little story within the story - Simon shares the book he is writing which is a fantasy story about how he is different, and it all comes together at the end of the book.

As a negative, I did not like the way the adults treated Simon and the way his concerns were dealt with, and I definitely did not like the father figure in this story. Some of the subject matter in this respect, may not be suitable for some younger readers.

Overall, it was a page turner, I always wanted to know what was going to happen next, and I would recommend this for some middle grade readers - but it might be too much for those with big imaginations.

PS - I would like to see Simon's story become a stand alone book. I think that would be great (but also creepy).

Simon knows all about aliens. He has been studying them for years and knows they are out there really abducting people. On a camping trip with his parents, Simon actually has an abduction experience. Of course no one believes him, but it keeps happening. He relies on his friends Tony and Miranda to help figure things out. His parents think he is crazy and send him to a psychiatrist to be medicated. But Simon knows something is coming.

Ronald Smith books are always a bit different and this was probably the strangest of them all. I think there were things that worked in this book and others that didn't. I don't get why the book Simon is writing was included, especially why full chapters were included. Sure it is supposed to help Simon work through what he is going on, but it was jarring and interrupted the flow of the story. I did like Simon's alien information and experiences. But what kid doesn't know what sour cream is? That might have been the strangest thing!

Honestly, this story was very childish, as is its intended audience. I found the writing to be very weak, the plot was almost non-existent, and the conflict of the series was simply that Simon wanted his family to believe him.

I think the only thing that I really liked was the ending - the alien children, Simon telling them of his abductions. That was honestly the only 'fun' and intriguing part of the story for me that I really enjoyed. (And that's so sad because it was only a page in a half to two pages long.)

I liked the cover, but as Simon comes to find out in the story, looks can be deceiving.

I didn't really enjoy this book. It felt like it didn't flow well and I wasn't really taken by the characters either. Also, the sci-fi theme didn't feel strong enough - aliens and conspiracy theories can't hold it together.

What an intense read: gripping, suspenseful; it kept me thoroughly engrossed, wanting to know what happened next. Things build inexorably to a climactic moment that caught this reader, at least, up in the urgency and drama.

Very strange and not developed in the right places. The ending also came out of a weird, choppy place, I felt. Full review on goodreads.

This book was really good! It was engrossing to the point it was hard to stop reading it. It's a great mixture of typical middle grade books (friends, crushes, family problems) and science fiction. It was well-written and believable. I look forward to seeing the final artwork. I would hand this to children who like a bit of science fiction mixed with realism.

I was drawn by this book from its synopsis because I have always felt that owls and aliens are closely related. I think this is a great beginner book for middle age kids to get into the horror/scifi genre.

This is a perfect book for kids who are into horror and aliens. I remember being fascinated by aliens as a child but could never find much fiction. It is a slow, almost subconscious feeling of unease that this book evokes.

What it's about:
Simon believes in aliens, specifically Grays. He’s read all about them, but when he gets abducted and a tracking device is implanted into his stomach, no one believes him, except for his friends Tony and Miranda.

What I liked:
The fear for me while reading this book was real. I have a fear of aliens, and the thoughts of being abducted. I’m right there with Simon. I get where he’s coming from, I understand his fear. I finished this book in one sitting because I needed to know how things turned out. And I have to say that the ending surprised me.

What I disliked:
Simons dad. What a jerk. He clearly had a favorite between his children, and a too high an opinion of himself. He had ideas of what Simon should be and how he should think and act and when Simon didn’t meet his standards, he didn’t bother to understand, or to except his son for who is he. As sad as it is, this is something that kids have to deal with everyday. Not being good enough for a parent. Falling short of their expectations or even have different beliefs.

Overview:
As an adult reading middle grade, I feel like this would be a great story to read before going on a camping trip. It’s just spooky enough to give you chills, especially if you’re scared of aliens. The real question you need to ask yourself before reading though, is, do YOU believe?