We're not from here

Review by Booklist Review

Rodkey offers a darkly comic sf tale positively thrumming with topical overtones. With Earth rendered uninhabitable, the last few remnants of humanity leap at the chance when the alien Zhuri offer to take them in. But when the would-be immigrants arrive at Planet Choom after a 20-year voyage in suspended animation, the local government has changed its tune withdrawing the offer and declaring the refugees too inherently violent to remain. After frantic negotiations, one human reproductive unit is reluctantly allowed to land but the deck is definitely stacked, as propaganda broadcasts of human wars and horror movies have whipped the insectile Zhuri into ravening, venom-­spraying swarms chanting Humans Go Home! Dumped with their parents into this political maelstrom is Ila Mifune, depressed, erstwhile teen-pop superstar, and narrator Lan, set up by the author as androgynous. It seems nothing short of a change in planetary government is going to guarantee humanity's survival in this pointed space romp. Cue the revolution!--John Peters Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this postapocalyptic comedy, a family of refugees from an Earth devastated by nuclear war is selected to represent humankind on an alien planet that is reluctant to take them in. The plan was to settle on Planet Choom, already home to several species living in harmony, but in the 20 years it took to travel there, Choom's dominant race, the insectoid Zhuri, changed their minds, wanting nothing to do with humanity's violence and emotional ways. As what's left of humanity orbits the planet, it's up to Lan Mifune and their family, as the chosen ambassadors, to live among the aliens and somehow persuade them to accept the desperate earthlings. The intentionally vaguely described narrator, Lan, must befriend their unusual classmates while showing that humans can live in peace-and their fondness for comedy proves instrumental in forging a connection with Choom's denizens. The various alien species feel plausible without straining the imagination, and related physiological and communicational misunderstandings offer amusement galore. Rodkey explores heady concepts such as immigration, tolerance, culture shock, and relative humor in this slapstick-laden allegory, and the story's lighthearted tone offers an age-appropriate handling of the somber issues and dire circumstances fueling its premise. Ages 8-12. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 3--7--After a 20-year interstellar trip to the planet Choom, Lan Mifune and family arrive. The political climate on the planet has changed, and the surviving humans (Earth has been destroyed) are no longer welcome. Lan and her family are given only a brief period of time to stay on Choom, during which they hope to change the inhabitants' opinions of Earthlings. Lan and her older sister, Ila, must fit in at school along with the Zhuri (who look like giant mosquitoes), Ororos (rather like giant marshmallows), and the ever-hungry Krik. Listeners will hear the screechy sounds made by Zhuri and sense their emotions by the smells they emit thanks to the well-paced, tension-filled narration by Dani Martineck. Though the narrator sounds female, it is interesting to note that Lan's gender is never specified. VERDICT This engaging science fiction adventure with some recognizable, contemporary concerns embedded throughout is brought to life in this well-done audio.--Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Who knew the survival of the human race would depend on fitting in at school?With Earth destroyed, humans have successfully petitioned Planet Choom to take them in as refugees. Narrator Lan Mifune and their family (Lan is never gendered in the text) travel there, arriving to a surprise. During the 20-year journey in bio-suspension asleep, Choom's government has changed, along with their acceptance of humans, and they are asked to leave immediately. With no other alternative, Lan's mom, Amora Persaud, who's on the ship's Governing Council, is able to negotiate a trial run, in which the Mifune family will prove humans can peacefully assimilate. Being the new kid at school is tough anywhere, but on Choom, Lan must navigate the cultures of the werewolflike Kriks; Ororos, who resemble giant marshmallows; and the Zhuri, who resemble giant mosquitoes and express emotions by secreting specific scents. Things get complicated when the Zhuri government executes a smear campaign against humans even as some privately believe humans can be peaceful if given the chance. It's up to Lan and their family to prove humans can contribute to society. Rodkey deftly mirrors recent debates about refugees and immigrants, twisting them into a black comedy-sci-fi mashup. Racial and ethnic diversity is purposely shown solely through names, hinting via surname that Lan's family shares mixed Japanese and Indian heritage. The abrupt resolution might leave some in disbelief, but that's a small price to pay.A quirky sci-fi adventure with a surprising layer of political irony. (Science fiction. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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The first time I heard anything about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. I was sitting in the rec center with Naya and Jens. We were taking a break from shooting a video we'd written. It was either How to Be Your Own Pet or Top Ten Toilets of the Mars Station. I can't remember which.   Naya leaned in over the table and whispered, like she was telling us a big secret. "My dad says they found a planet humans can live on permanently. Like, we can breathe the air and everything. But the thing is . . ."   She looked around to make sure nobody else was listening before she went on. "There's already aliens there. And they look like giant bugs."   "What kind of bugs?" Jens asked.   "I don't know," said Naya. "I think mosquitoes."   "Are they dangerous? Like, do they have stingers?" A planet full of giant mosquitoes sounded terrifying.   Naya shook her head. "They don't act like mosquitoes. They just look like them. And they're really smart."   "As smart as humans?"   "Yeah. Like, maybe even smarter."   "Are they friendly?"   "I guess. I mean, they know we exist. And they haven't tried to kill us or anything."   "I'd rather just go to Novo," I said. This was a few months after the Governing Council had announced they'd discovered Novo in a nearby solar system. It was a planet that could almost-but-not-quite support human life, and the GC was studying whether they could "terraform" it, which meant changing its environment enough for us to live there.   Naya snorted. "Novo's never going to work," she said, shaking her head. "If it could, we'd all be headed there by now."   "Not necessarily," I told her. "Novo's really far away. So they have to be sure. And it's hard to study it from here. Plus, they need time to get all the bio-suspension pods ready." The trip to Novo would take fifteen Earth years, and the only way for a whole ship full of people to survive the trip without running out of food and water was to go into bio-suspension. Supposedly, that was just like going to sleep, except it lasted much longer, and you barfed a lot when you woke up.   "Is that what your mom told you?"   "No! It was in the weekly announcements. My mom doesn't tell me anything." Mom had been elected to the Governing Council when it got set up right after the first refugee ships arrived on Mars. It was a big deal, I guess, but it didn't get my family any special treatment or inside info. All it meant for me was that I never saw Mom, because she was always working.   "I'm just going to go back to Earth," Jens announced.   I rolled my eyes as Naya sighed. "You can't go back to Earth!" she told Jens for about the fortieth time.   "Why not?"   "Everybody there is dead!"   "So?"   "So nobody can live there anymore!"   "Nuh-uh!" Jens insisted. "We can live there again. We just have to wait a while."   "Yeah, like a thousand years."   "Nuh-uh! Just a year or two! My dad said so."   "Your dad's wrong."   "No, he's not!"   They probably would've kept arguing until Jens started to cry, which was what usually happened when we tried to change his mind about Earth. But just then an old man passed by our table. He must've been on one of the last ships to arrive, because his face was pockmarked with dark red sores from radiation exposure.   When he saw us, he stopped and looked down. "You kids making another one of your videos?"   "Yes, sir." I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Whenever we made a new video, the guy who ran Movie Night at the rec center played it on the big screen before the main feature. We'd done about half a dozen of them, and they'd turned Naya, Jens, and me into minor celebrities among the hundred or so people who usually showed up for the movie.   "Keep it up!" the man told us. "Folks need to laugh. Now more than ever."   "Not too many people laughed at the last one," Naya reminded him. I'd written Fabulous Fashion Looks for Fall myself, after I outgrew everything I'd brought from Earth and my parents sent me to the clothing exchange. All they had in my size were a pair of worn-out jeans with mysterious stains on them and a grimy T-shirt that said taylor swift world tour 2028. Now I was stuck wearing them even though the stains grossed me out and I'd never even listened to Taylor Swift.   So I wrote a video making fun of the clothing exchange. But it came out more angry than funny, and people didn't like it nearly as much as our other ones.   "Was that the one about the clothes?" The old man grimaced in sympathy. "Yeah, that was a bit of a misfire. But don't let it get you down! You know what they say: 'Dying's easy. Comedy's hard.' "   "People say that?" I'd never heard it before. To be honest, it seemed a little inappropriate.   "They used to. Back in my theater days. Guess it made more sense back then." He chuckled. "Point is--you just keep up the good work. You're raising people's spirits. We need all the joy we can get around here." Then he put a scarred hand on my shoulder and lowered his head a little closer to mine. "Speaking of which, I heard a rumor. . . ."   I knew what was coming next even before he said it.   "Is your sister Ila Mifune? From that Pop Singer show?"   "Yes, sir." Ila had been playing guitar and singing since she was six. By twelve she was writing her own songs. At sixteen she went to an open audition for Pop Singer, the highest-rated TV show in our country. She made it all the way through to the semifinals, where she sang one of her own songs, "Under a Blue Sky," to a TV audience of sixty million people. Going into the live final episode, she had more votes than any of the other contestants.   But the world had been slowly falling apart for a while, and two days before the episode was supposed to happen, it suddenly fell apart a lot faster. Instead of going to the airport and flying to see Ila in the Pop Singer finale, we wound up at the spaceport, where we were lucky enough to get seats for all four of us on a ship to Mars.   Most people weren't that lucky.   Excerpted from We're Not from Here by Geoff Rodkey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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