Hi From Outer Space by Fiona Katauskas

Title: Hi From Outer Space

Author: Fiona Katauskas

Genre: Science Fiction, humour

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 30^th July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 2732

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: A laugh-out-loud fish-out-of-water story (if that fish was an alien visiting Earth to complete his school project) from an award-winning cartoonist and bestselling children’s author.

With a whispery hiss, the spaceship touched down on the grass. A door opened. A ramp extended. An alien slid forward. ‘TAKE. ME. TO. YOUR. LEADER.’

Alex wants to win the National Young Cartoonist Competition. She’s got the talent, but what should she draw? Along comes Hi, an alien from the Planet Wendy. Hi is also working on a project: he has three days to learn about Earth’s leaders for his Earth Studies class. Maybe they could help each other?

Soon, Hi’s Earthly visit sets in motion a chain of extraordinary events, including a viral TikTok, a shoe-shop haunting and an astronomically wild rock concert.

A cosmically funny story about leaders, followers and friendships that are out of this world.

~*~

What would you do if an alien with three eyes landed in front of you in a clichéd spaceship, and uttered the phrase ‘take me to your leader?’ Especially after you’ve tested out a cliché about someone slipping on a banana peel and landing butt first on a cactus – something that was filmed when your dad accidentally walked into it and became a TikTok sensation? That’s what Alex is dealing with when the novel opens. She also wants to win the National Young Cartoonist Competition – and she has just over a week to do so. And Hi, or Hieronymus also needs her help with his own project for Earth Studies about human leadership. And with a dad who is a former rockstar reconnecting with his band following the viral TikTok that has made the news, Alex feels like her entire life is becoming a cliché.

And with three days – it’s always three days – Alex and Hi might be able to help each other in a world where the truth is stranger than fiction and there could always be someone to give you a helping hand – though sometimes it can be in the ways you least expect it. And sometimes that can be from an alien from Planet Wendy who has a rather unusual obsession with shoes. Which seems odd, because Wendyans don’t have feet, but they have three eyes. It’s one cliché that doesn’t appear – the stereotypical image of aliens. Fiona Katauskas has cleverly used the clichés of aliens and cartoon jokes to tell a diverse and engaging story about a single parent family, where each member of the family – Dad, Tish, Alex – have their own skills and talents and are supportive of each other. There is something delightful about this because it has a magic about it, because they’re a little bit unconventional in how they do things. This works well, though, and gives them the space they need in the story to celebrate creativity, creative lives and art through music, cartoons and all sorts of things in this grexcellent (Hi’s word) middle grade novel filled with humour, fun and excitement.

Of course, a novel with aliens would not be complete without the lore of Planet Wendy and its inhabitants, the Wendyans, where families have three parents called wendles, and they have three eyes, no feet, are woefully misinformed about life on Earth by a television show called Earthlings do the Whackiest Things (they think Earthling teachers are chimps), and take everything literally.  Hi needs metaphors and nuances of our language explained to him, just as he explains Wendyan culture to Alex, and all about the Wendyan language. Hi’s language sounds like a mixture of oddly placed sounds that humans can recognise, but not understand. And to top it off, only Alex and people known as Tuners like her friend Taqi, whose mother is in the band with Alex’s dad, can see and understand aliens like Hi. Everyone else is affected by Discombobulation Denial Disorder – so they only hear the odd sounds Hi makes. Of course, this creates a lot of confusion and chaos as does Hi’s invisibility when he ventures into a shoe shop called Shoetopia, amongst other things.

Everything in this novel, whether a cliché, a stereotype, or something else is carefully and cleverly used to show the strengths and weaknesses of each character. It also shows how working collaboratively, even when you don’t realise you are, can benefit everyone. Best of all, I loved the way that this book celebrated friendship, family, diversity, and the creative worlds of music, writing, and cartoons. From Alex walking the dog and finding an alien (also a cliché in crime stories – the jogger or dog walker always finds the body or winds up dead), to everyone else hearing nonsense when the alien is around, and cliché cartoon accidents opening the book, it felt like this novel had a bit of everything. I felt that it did something clever with clichés, using them to tell a good story that readers of all ages from nine and over will enjoy on many levels, and also appreciate on many levels depending on what they know before going into this novel. It will also help readers start to understand clichés if this is their first encounter with them. I loved how this played with things and used them, and turned some things on their heads – who knew aliens could have a rather unusual shoe fetish.

A fabulous debut that I found extremely entertaining! And with a fantastic endorsement from Worst Week Ever creators Matt Cosgrove and Eva Amores, this book sounds like it is going to be enjoyed by Justin Chase’s fans – and he’s been through A LOT in just six days so far! So come and read this book as well – Alex and Justin could have some interesting stories to switch.