The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away

Simon is something of an outsider. He is bi-racial with a black mother and white father. Small for his age, he spends his time playing video games and reading and writing fantasy books. His older brother is away at soccer camp. Simon has one really good friend, Tony, but he is gone for the summer, so Simon is really alone. His father insists on taking Simon and his mother for a camping trip. There Simon encounters an alien in the woods and realizes later he has had a device implanted in his stomach. His parents don’t believe him and send him to a psychiatrist. But nothing can prevent another encounter, much worse than the first. He has to get rid of the implanted device, but when he tries to cut it out, things really get bad.

Author Ronald L. Smith has written a riveting story of a young boy being chosen by aliens as the future of mankind for after the takeover by aliens. He keeps readers in suspense as Simon figures out whether he really has had close encounters with aliens or if he is just crazy. Middle-graders will find this story fascinating and fun.