This was so good. Our fifth graders will love this story about a kid, Nathan, who is keeping a big secret- His family is from another planet and they are trying to pass as earthlings. They are part of a big experiment. Then one day, Nathan grows a tail. What should his family do? When they are recalled to the mothership, Nathan questions all he has been told about his family and their purpose. There are plot twists all over the place!

I'm pleasantly surprised by this story - I like sci-fi, and this one doesn't dummy-down (i.e., over-explain) the plot to death. It was a smooth, fun, suspenseful alien abduction story. And I wouldn't say it's fantasy; it's definitely more sci-fi.

I enjoyed the inane, unexpected, but humorous connections to Calvin & Hobbes throughout the story.

The characters had well-developed personalities and delivered believable emotions and dialogue. The story flowed well. The settings were described well enough to follow what the characters were experiencing and doing.

I've given it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5 stars and am looking forward to getting it for my school library.

The Experiment has all the quirky charm and weirdness you come to expect from a Rebecca Stead book. Kids are going to be so intrigued by the experimental details about how Nathan lives that are revealed at the start, and pulled in further by the tail, the disappearances , the "alien" of it all and the way the story progresses. I envision this being a real hit with my 3rd and 4th graders for sure. Will be adding to my library collection!

Rebecca Stead does it again! Her science-fiction books are my favorite, though this one is much more like her first middle grade novel, First Light, than any other. Yes, there is the theme of exploration, but like many of Stead's works, all is not as it seems. The story opens with Nathan and his family, aliens from another planet, a fact Nathan has known all of his life. His family and nine other families are part of "the experiment," but things seem to be going wrong. You'll have to read it to find out why because -- just like her other sci-fi stories-- the less you know, the better.

Do you like weird little stories? Maybe ones about friendship but they're also about aliens? Ones that seem pretty normal except for a few definitely strange elements? I do! And that is why I love Rebecca Stead. I would easily put her in my top ten authors, and her newest book is no different.

I think maybe my favorite part of The Experiment was the friendship between the two boys. They love each other unabashedly, and I just wanted to give them both a big hug (which they would be totally cool with).

I also loved that Nathan gets to learn a lot about grownups and what they do or do not need in their lives. Rebecca Stead just has this way of teaching beautiful lessons in her books while not really looking the lesson straight in the eye. Oh, adults don't always know everything and sometimes need support and love too? Let me teach you that with pink toothpaste and a tail named Tuck!

Fun story about aliens who have infiltrated Earth. Or have they? I love Rebecca Stead's writing and found this funny and easy to read, with great descriptions. Also, I'm pretty sure my cat is spying on me too! Solid kid fiction.

I've read other books by this author which I have thoroughly enjoyed, so I was excited to get the advanced reader's copy for this one. I have mixed feelings about this book. There is no doubt that Stead is a great writer and her ability to flesh out her characters is one of the many reasons I like reading her books, but I was disappointed when the plot took a strange, almost goofy turn. I'm sure there are many readers who will like this quirky book, but this one wasn't my cup of tea.

Plotty McPlotterson!! This will be a home run for your adventure-seeking scifi fanatics. The reading experience reminded me a lot of FOREVER TWELVE by Stacy McAnulty -- I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

The following review was published on Goodreads on 6.28.25:

THE EXPERIMENT is a sweet, entertaining read about what it really means to be human. Nathan is an appealing hero who cares about the creatures around him (human and otherwise—even the family's enhanced cat, who's been tattling on Nathan since birth). I easily became invested in his search for answers. The answers he finds are a tad predictable, but his journey to find them makes for an exciting and interesting story. Tuck is my hands-down favorite part of the novel. My other one is the gentle ending that Hester gets, in spite of everything. This unique book is fun, upbeat, and empowering. I enjoyed it.

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG for scary situations/scenes of peril

Nathan and his "nine good friends" have a big secret. They are only friends virtually, living and growing up in different states, but what they share, no one else can know-they are from another planet. Their parents are explorers who are learning if survival in human form is possible.
Lately, some of the nine close friends have been disappearing from their Zoom chats, and now Nathan is worried that he is about to be "disappeared" as well. Before the DPs come to collect him, he leaves a note for his human best friend, Victor.

This book was so unique and so fun. Victor is a true friend who ends up accepting Nathan as he is and then vows to help him try to figure out what has been happening with the others. This is a great middle grade Science fiction that will keep readers thinking and guessing and ultimately wondering about truth and love. I will highly recommend it to my students.

Thanks to Nick Kelly Ford the Ark of the experiment by Rebecca stea. This is a middle grade that follows Nathan who is supposedly an alien from the planet Kast. Throughout the story Nathan contemplates his existence as an alien, a “Fact” that he has lived with all his life

Nathan is forced to contemplate ideas beyond his years, as part of his mission to save his friends from being expelled from the planet. He seems slightly mature for his age, as he mentions going out with his friend Izzy who is a girl.

The experiment has a very engaging plot. The main themes being identity and explanation of Truth. One thing I think Steve does very well is balance Nathan as a human and an alien. One way she integrates these two parts of his character is by making him have to brush his teeth at school.

I would recommend this book to a middle grader who is who is interested in space related stories.

This was a book like you have never read before. Nathan has known from a very young age that he was not from earth. His best friend Victor just thinks his parent are a bit weird. Nathan and the kids from the other nine families in the experiment facetime each other once a month. But when kids started disappearing from their group things start change and he and his family are escorted back to the mothership, and that is when things start to fall into place for Nathan.
I really can’t tell you much more without giving anything away. But it is a wonderful story, and did I mention the cats? There are cats. It is a very fresh and wonderful story. I loved it a lot that I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. It has a ton of suspense and lots of action, to keep everyone satisfied.

This book has a nice tone to it that makes it enjoyable to read. The plot is very intriguing. The characters are very likeable. The worldbuilding works effectively as the main character moves between two different worlds. The events keep the reader wanting to read more.

I really enjoyed this book. It was suspenseful and a lighthearted mystery that middle grader sci fi lovers will enjoy.

This is a beautifully written book about a boy who has always known he's not human but has to keep the secret from everyone around him, including his best friend, Victor.

It's really hard to delve too much into the plot of this one without spoiling anything, but basically something happens and everything he has ever known is thrown into chaos. The concept for this book is very interesting, and definitely not like anything I'd ever read before. (But then again, it's not really my genre!)

When it comes to books, I'm really a character over plot person. While this book obviously has a fantastical and elaborate plot, it doesn't sacrifice character development at all. I really loved everyone in the story and cared about what happened to them. I also really appreciated the fun plot twists. There was something new around every corner and it was hard to stop reading!

Unfortunately, I do feel like I'm left with a few questions after the conclusion of this book. The story wrapped up pretty well, but there were a few minor subplots that I feel weren't satisfactorily answered. I think the first part of the book asked A LOT of questions and then the ending was trying too hard to tie things up quickly. Maybe it could've used a few more pages. Maybe the story just needed to be tighter. I'm not sure.

Overall though, I would say that this book is fantastic. It had a really fun plot, engaging characters, and great writing. Obviously Rebecca Stead is a gifted writer. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited about the prospect of a new Rebecca Stead book, I literally could not push that request button quickly enough! When You Reach Me will always be my favorite, but I just love all of her books and I was excited to see a new one on the horizon.

Our main character is Nathan, and he’s an alien - but he’s been raised on Earth. His parents are Kast - they were raised on a space ship. They spent most of their lives traveling to Earth to be explorers, so they don’t have any memories of their home world either. Nathan has to do all kinds of weird things to maintain his human form - including brushing his teeth several times a day with a special pink toothpaste. But after his family takes their first ever vacation, Nathan comes back…a little different. He’s grown a tail. He knows this is bad - he’s failed at being a human. And he’s not certain, but he’s pretty sure the consequences for this are being banished back to the Kast home planet. Nathan’s is actually one of several alien families in various cities around the US (it’s interesting that they are concentrated in one particular country rather than all over the world - although we do learn there’s a reason for this). In the last few months, several of the alien kids have disappeared. Did they also grow tails? Or is something fishy going on?

With the help of his best friend Victor and his tail, Tuck, Nathan sets out to find out the truth behind his (and his parents’) origin story.

This is fun - as is always the case in a Rebecca Stead joint, Nathan feels like a real 6th grader. He’s not really dealing with the standard 6th grade growing pains (which are typically friend-related) given that he has bigger things on his mind. I did like his buddy Victor, though. And there are intelligent cats who spy on the kids and report back to the parents! It’s sci-fi that doesn’t feel too silly or weird, which can sometimes be the case with middle grade stuff. There are a few plot points I wanted more of, but I’ll save those complaints until closer to the release date.

The Experiment is such an interesting book! I love when a plot is different than anything I've seen before. Nathan's journey is an exciting trip that will leave you questioning everything!

This was a tough book to get all the way through. I thought it would fit my interests- but I struggled to keep going. The concept was a bit out there for my personal preferences.

This is such an imaginative, suspenseful novel that sci-fi fans will eat up, but isn't "too sci-fi" for other readers. I loved how the details of Nathan's life slowly unfolded, and the plot twists were timed perfectly. I never quite knew where the story was going, and that made for a really fun read. Kudos to Rebecca Stead for writing a twisty, fast=paced, adventurous novel that totally immersed me - in under 300 pages! This was very cleverly written, and I predict it will be a big hit with middle grade readers!

I’ve been a huge fan of Stead’s previous works but this one missed the mark for me. I felt like the climax was rushed and the resolution confusing.