Fiona Katauskas, Hi from Outer Space, Allen and Unwin, July 2024, 272 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761069260
Alex desperately wants to win the National Young Cartoonist Competition, where the theme is, ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’. She has no idea what to draw when, luckily for her, a spaceship lands in a nearby park while she’s walking her dog. An alien called Hi steps out saying, ‘Take me to your leader’. Turns out, Hi is also working on a project: he has three days to learn about Earth’s leaders for his Earth Studies class.
Alex has a brilliant idea and invites the alien home, knowing if they work together, they can both ace their assignments. But not everything goes smoothly and soon, chaos runs rampant with viral Tik Tok videos of Alex’s dad and a rather prickly cactus, haunted shoe shops and an out-of-this world rock concert.
This book offers a fast-paced, illustrated, humorous ride, with lots of puns and observations about humans and human behaviour, which doesn’t always make sense…to humans or aliens.
Reviewed by Deborah Abela
