Sneaky, Weird Fun

The setup is novel. A spaceship full of Earth refugees shows up at the planet Choom, which has agreed to give them safe harbor. When they arrive, though, they learn that the Choom government has changed, has closed its "borders", and is no longer welcoming. After negotiations a trial family is allowed to land as a test case for Earthman immigration. The book follows the experiences of this family, mainly the son and daughter. So, you say, this is going to be a possibly heavy-handed allegory about our disagreements over immigration and its consequences. Well, yes and no.

We follow the two Earth kids as they go to school. Turns out this is, at least for the first half, also a school daze comedy with a clever alien overlay. Some teachers resent the new kids, and some are sympathetic. There are bullies, and aliens who appear to be bullies but are secretly open to being friends. The author has a grand time sending up the conventions of the usual school daze, new kids, tales. And, while our two Earth heroes are generally earnest, the aliens are actually pretty funny and deadpan wiseguys.

The whole thing develops from there, with the Earthmen fighting prejudice and so on, again with a weird alien overlay. The best part is that there are some interesting and edgy twists and turns and some surprising issues touched on. The whole book screams along, but the reader is always a little off balance because the book doesn't just cover the sort of predictable arc that the premise would suggest. It's no spoiler to note that we have a happy ending, but how we get there is more thrilling and suspenseful than expected.

So, this is funny and thoughtful and a little deeper and better plotted than I expected. It seems like the sort of book that a middle grader who can role with the narrative punches would get a kick out of.


(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

What a great book! I can see this being a great discussion book in a classroom setting, or for a book club. And, as a bonus, it's really funny.

Lan and his family are on Mars after humans destroyed the Earth. Supplies are dwindling so when a planet that is already inhabited offers refuge, some of the humans jump at the chance. Lan can't imagine what it will be like living on a planet full of aliens. Wait, Lan and his family will be the aliens! Hopefully everything will work out, but this wouldn't be a very good story if there weren't some issues along the way.

In We’re Not from Here, humanity’s less-than-stellar track record when it comes to planets and people makes them undesirable intergalactic immigrants when Earth gets blown up. After a year in a refugee camp on Mars, Lan’s family gets a chance to relocate to planet Choom, where four other species live peacefully. It sounds serious, and it definitely tackles some important topics, from prejudice to fake news to mob mentality, but it’s got a light-hearted, Douglas Adams-esque approach to its seriousness that makes it a really fun middle grades read. I liked it!

"Imagine being forced to move to a new planet where YOU are the alien!

The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. But life on the Mars station was grim, and since Earth was no longer an option (we may have blown it up), it was time to find a new home. "

Quick little read, story was great! Very unique setting and I couldn't stop reading it! I think most adults would find this book cute! Great story for the little ones in your life. Very entertaining!

A middle grade novel about a group of refugees from Earth trying to convince the inhabitants of another planet to accept them. This took me awhile to get into; it seemed too didactic in the beginning, but Rodkey writes middle grade humor well, and about half-way through, I forgot about the message and was caught up in the story. Present is to Wimpy Kid fans ready for something deeper - and then do use it to talk about issues of "the other" and refugees.
Review based on an ARC received through NetGalley.

We're Not From Here is a fun space adventure with a very relatable topic in today's political climate. The Earth is not livable and the last remaining humans are invited to relocate on planet Choom by the four races (three of which were refugees themselves) that live there. Fast forward twenty years - the Humans come out of bio-suspension and arrive at Choom, only to find out that one of the races that initially invited them is mysteriously missing, the humans are deemed "too violent," and their invitation to colonize is rescinded. This is a tale of optimism - even when our differences seem too great to overcome, there is always something that unites us.

I really enjoyed this story. It moved pretty fast but it was fun look at what it would be like for the whole human race to be refugees on a different planet. A planet which automatically assumes the human is a destructive and violent being. It is up to Lan and Ila to convince the citizen of Chum that the Human is not how they perceive them to be.

Although obviously sci-fi, this book is a bit tough to describe. Post-apocalyptic, dark comedy, political commentary...

Lan and Lan's family (we never do find out if Lan is a boy or girl) are on a ship that has escaped from Earth after nuclear disaster. They must find a safe place to land and thought they found it on the planet Choom. But after traveling there, it ends up in the meantime the governing species has changed their minds and doesn't want the violent humans inciting emotions and causing chaos on their planet. Lan, sister Ila, and their parents are allowed onto the planet's surface to demonstrate that humans are peaceable but they are thwarted at almost every turn by the government and angry citizens of the planet. This was definitely a darker book, but there were elements of humor, as well. Marf the Ororo (another refugee species) is brilliant and very funny. This book will make kids think about how media can twist our interpretations, and how discrimination is usually baseless and influenced by those around us (without us even knowing).

I might be projecting a little, but I felt that Rodkey was trying to make a statement about the current political climate and was missing the mark. The ending was somehow both predictable and sudden.

This was a very story about one “reproductive unit” (family’s) experience on the planet Choom, trying to convince the three other species to allow them to stay. Emotions in the dominant/most populous species are displayed as smells, which lead to some interesting situations. When Lan is befriended by an Ororo, who are thousands of times smarter than humans, things get really interesting. Will the humans be allowed to stay, or sent back into space with insufficient fuel to survive?

This was a great sci-fi middle grade adventure!
Planet earth is no longer inhabitable so a group of a few thousand recolonize on Mars, but that wasn’t working out either. As things are getting worse on Mars they get an invitation to come to Planet Choom. Off they go to Choom, their last hope of survival and a 20 year trip.. When they get there they discover that Choom’s government has changed their mind on the invitation.
So now what do they do? The government allows one family unit to stay as a trial run, Lan, Ila and their parents.
On Choom they are the aliens and the people of Choom are a mixed race of very different looking beings. With their emotions being expressed through odor Lan and Ila are able to learn what they like and what they don’t. But can they learn enough to convince this government to let them stay, or do they have to go another route?
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Publishing for this advanced copy.

Lan Mifune and his family are humans who are about to become aliens. After Earth was destroyed by a nuclear war, what’s left of the human population must find a new host planet. Lan and his family agree to be human test subjects on Planet Choom to see if the human race can get along with the other alien races. But it’s going to be hard to persuade a whole planet that already dislikes humans. It’s up to Lan and his family to represent the best qualities of the human race and it isn’t going to be easy! We’re Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey takes a humorous look at what it would be like if humans were the aliens on a new planet.

This book was a unique and enjoyable read! My younger self would have laughed about how one of Planet Choom’s inhabitants “display smell” as a form of showing emotion. My adult self loves the subtle commentary about immigration. Rodkey does a wonderful job of knitting together Lan’s optimism and humor with the dire state of the human race. A great book for 4th - 8th grade students, I think it would be a wonderful addition on any bookshelf or library collection. I definitely look forward to picking up my own copy on March 5th!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s publishing for allowing me to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rodkey’s book starts out on Mars. Humans have mucked up Earth so bad, survivors are huddled together in a failing Mars station. Life in the station is rough for Lan and Ila. If wearing holey trade-in clothes wasn’t bad enough, the food riots caused by their father’s Chow convinced many it was time to leave. Some chose to return to Earth, some wanted to try terraforming a different planet, and some wanted to stay on Mars. It wasn’t until an invitation from Planet Choom arrived, that there was a slimmer of hope for what remained of the human race.

After a 20 year journey to Planet Choom, the survivors learned the invitation had been rescinded. Not wanting to look bad, however, the Choom government allowed one reproductive unit to come to the planet as a trial run. Lan and Ila were part of that unit.

Once they arrived on the planet it was clear that they were not welcome … at least that’s what some wanted everyone to think. What should you do when everyone is not in agreement … overthrow the government, of course!

I absolutely loved this book. Rodkey center’s on Lan and her experience at school on Planet Choom. The government attempts to control emotions and actions, but neither the Zhuri, Krik, or Ororo counted on one smart human figuring out their smells. Gasoline = angry, donuts = laughter, sour-milk = fear. Playing just inside the Zhuri’s rules, Lan promotes positive emotions through slapstick comedy.

With a little luck and a lot of help from silent supporters, Lan and her new friends help spread the truth about humans and emotions – they can be fun.

Each of the characters are well developed and their histories are both fascinating and sad. I would have loved to learn more about the Krik and Zhuri’s history though. Aside from being small, green, werewolf-like creatures, we don’t see much of the Krik. The Ororo, white-blue marshmallow-looking giants, are the smallest group on Planet Choom, and we don’t get to hear much about their history either. We do get to learn the tragic history of the Nug and why the Zhuri government changed its mind about the humans.

This book has everything — singing, comedy, fear, hope, conflict, support, and faith. They didn’t know if their plan would work, but they had to try. That’s what life is all about. Whether you’re human or Ororo or Zhuri – perseverance is the key.

I would love to see this book in classrooms and on teachers’ reading lists!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

The Earth has been destroyed and although Mars offered a temporary home supplies are running out. Some people decide to try and go back to Earth, some people venture out to another system but one group decides to go to a planet that has welcomed refugees in the past. The problem is, it will take 20 years in suspended animation to get there but it will be worth it.
But... when they get there they find out that the whole government has changed and they are no longer welcome. After some negotiations one family is allowed to go down and try to prove that humanity is not violent. Can they convince the government or is humanity doomed?
This was pretty funny and in the end I liked it but I felt that in some ways the book just tried to hard to tick some boxes.

Omg this was such a cute and interesting book. I really liked the unique setting, and just found myself flying through this story. This book is also extremely frustrating but in a way that makes you want to keep going to see how everything works out in the end! Definitely in my top middle grade favorites of all time now!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really, really loved this book. I have a thing for kids books that don't treat their audience like they need to be spoon-fed.

The story starts with Lan and their family going to the planet Choom after being in a sleep for decades.
Unfortunately the government has changed and the Hunan's are no longer welcome.
What happens next is an very well written story of xenophobia and the friendships with the aliens.

There's some pretty dark humor which I'm all about. I really enjoyed Lan and Marfs relationship!

Lan, Ila and their family live on Mars in a colony of under 3,000 people who escaped Earth after it was made uninhabitable. However, the supplies are dwindling quickly, and life there is unsustainable. There is the possibility of terraforming another planet, but there's no time. Luckily, the group receives an invitation from the residents of Choom, which is conducive to human life. Only about half the residents want to go (the other half return to Earth), so they take off for Choom. It takes 20 years in suspended animation, and when the ship arrives, there is trouble. There has been a change in administration, and the current rulers don't want humans, as they are considered too violent. The ship is attacked by angry mobs of Zhuri (who look like large mosquitoes), but eventually, the government allows one reproductive unit-- Lan's family-- for a trial period. Leeni, of the Immigration Division, gets the family settled into a heavily protected home, enrolls the children in school, and gets the parents jobs. Of course, since humans are deemed violent and not intelligent, the parents end up working at the morgue and in garbage collection, where things get off to a rocky start. Luckily, translating computers make communicating easier, although the minority Krik accent is not translated. School is not much better, although Lan's teacher, Yurinuri, is very kind. The classmates are very fearful, which Lan can understand because the Zhuri emit a smell like sour milk when they are afraid. This is considered very rude; Zhuri have a partial hive mind and "everyone agrees" that all emotions are bad and rude. Lan makes a friend in Morf, who is the only Ororo (a people who look like giant marshmallows, are 7,000 times smarter than humans, and are keen to make a buck!) student in the school. Marf adjusts the translator to understand Krik and invites Lan's family for dinner, where the parents produce a salve to help the father's wounds from being attacked by venom spewing Zhuri at work and send them home with food. The government starts sending propaganda to the news to persuade the population that "everyone agrees" that humans should not stay. Ila becomes very depressed, since she had a career as a singer and actress on Earth. Lan realizes that making the Zhuri laugh might be the only way to turn the tide, but when he sees the effect of his sister's music on the group, he knows that might help as well. After some small experiments at school, things become dire, and Marf helps Lan overthrow the government peacefully so that the rest of the humans can be settled on Choom.

Strengths: As in Tom O'Donnell's Space Rocks, humans are the aliens here, and this is used to HUGE advantage! The destruction of Earth is set up in a believable way, the Mars colony is quickly dispatched, and the description of Choom is perfect for setting up this allegorical tale of immigration. It's perfect that most of the story centers around Lan (whose gender is never mentioned-- do you know how hard that must have been to write?) and the experiences at school, since that is where young readers' concerns would be. The use of language was particularly effective and made it sound like actual translation from Zhuri-- body garbage, midday nutrition, human animals-- it's hard to describe but well done. Normally, odd language irritates me, but this was spot on. The difficulties in the changes in government, plus the reason for the changes, was thought provoking. Lan and Marf were great characters, and it was great to see how people with completely different backgrounds can bond, even if it's over slapstick comedy.
Weaknesses: From an adult perspective, this is pretty heavy handed in its message, BUT it is also plenty goofy. Kids will enjoy the comedy and friendship, but also not be able to miss the message about being welcoming to people who are different from you.
What I really think: I am very impressed. I will definitely recommend this to 6th and 7th grade teachers for use as a class novel. It could start some great discussions!

Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Loved sci-fi stories when I was little (still do) This story and characters were relatable. Kids I think will find it a good read. Already planning on ordering for my store & my grandkids.

This hilarious sci-fi adventure is full of peril and jokes about bodily functions. It's also a subtle comment on immigration. Home run for middle schoolers!