Summer Experiment by Cathie Pelletier

Summer Experiment by Cathie Pelletier
Series: N/A
Source: Netgalley (Thanks, Sourcebooks!)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Award-winning author makes her children's book debut with an unforgettable character

A boring summer vacation turns unexpectedly interesting when mysterious lights appear over Roberta's hometown in northern Maine. Roberta is convinced she and her best friend Marillee can win the Maine State Science Fair if only they can find an amazing project to showcase. Communicating with aliens would certainly do the trick. But in order to win they'll need to defeat their chief competitor, "The 4H's of the Apocalypse": Henry Horton Harris Helmsby.

This is a story told in a distinctive voice that is by turns funny, exciting, and sometimes heartbreaking.

I hate to be a hater, but honestly - I didn't really care for this one. I was more interested in the alien abduction story that Summer Experiment was based on/with than the actual book. I even went so far as to research the Allagash Abductions on Wikipedia and everything - and they're still more interesting than this story.

I found the main character, Roberta, to be ridiculously pretentious and annoying. A know-it-all, if you will. And I hope that's not the kind of characters that middle grade readers are looking for... because, well, I'll feel slightly bad then. I didn't care for any of the characters, to tell you the truth. They were all a little too naive, or too annoying, etc.

The ending was okay, but I was just hoping for more from this book. There just wasn't enough detail to keep me interested, and the storyline, along with the characters killed me. All in all, Summer Experiment REALLY wasn't the book for me. Sorry you guys had to read this super awkward review!