2024
Reuben lives with his grandmother. He has to wear special glasses because he has something wrong with his eyes. He and his grandmother are constantly looking for visitors form other planets.
Then one day they arrive. Grandma rushes off to find out more about them. Reuben is left mainly to his own devices. However, he finds a survivor form the crashed space ship; he calls her Blue because a blue light comes from her.
Archie, a local grocer’s son, befriends Reuben and together they look after Blue, saving her from captivity by the scheming Professor Pinfield who wants to win the Pierre Guzman prize – a huge cash award for anyone who could communicate with life on another planet.
Grandma has sent a letter to Reuben to let him know what is going on but he left their home before it arrived. It is the first time he has ventured out beyond the gates of their house. He is almost overwhelmed by the activity there.
Reuben and his grandmother do find each other again and Blue is reunited with the other survivors of the crash and with some of her other people who have bene living on Earth form some time. Now he finds the truth out about himself: he is also from the other planet and he has to keep his eyes covered because of the way they behave. He can gradually learn to keep this under control.
He has the choice of staying with Grandma or joining the ‘others’ like him. At the end of the book it looks as if he’s going to divide his time between the two places. After all, he has found a good friend in Archie.
The book is 340 pages long. It uses a blocked text and an adult serif with difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s. Each chapter heading has a black and white picture of Inky, Reuben’s’ cat, a telescope and Reuben’s special glasses. There are a few full page black and white illustrations.
There is a short bio of the author at the beginning of the books and several notes from her at the end. She explains all about the Guzman prize which really existed.
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