Gabe Fuentes has two sets of alien problems: 1) He has been chosen as the secret ambassador of our entire planet. 2) His undocumented parents are facing deportation from the country. Now he needs to save the world while trying not to lose his family.

“In the short time William Alexander has had books out, I have become a huge fan of his writing. He can’t write a bad sentence and he has a way with oddball characters that he makes come alive. He has done it again, this time in a pure science fiction novel for middle grade readers that has as its main character a human boy—Gabe Fuentes–who is imaginative, sweet, and courageous in all the right ways without being a bit saccharine or off-putting, and is most likely going to save planet earth from destruction. I think we’d be in much better hands if we had a senate full of youngsters like Gabe and his smart, sassy sister Lupe as our senators and reps than the ones we have in there now. I can’t wait for Book Number 2!”

– Jane Yolen, Aesop of our era

“Alexander, who won a National Book Award for his 2012 novel Goblin Secrets, merges the fantastic with the ­everyday to create an engaging and smart allegory about the hurt and strangeness of the modern immigrant condition.”

- Héctor Tobar for The New York Times Review of Books

“Alexander injects meaningful depth into an exciting sci-fi adventure, perceptively exploring what it means to be alien.”

– Booklist

“An interstellar embassy, alien assassins, galactic mass extinctions: These are Gabe’s small problems.”

– Kirkus, starred review

“Alexander creates in Gabe a character who remains tremendously likable while exhibiting courage, diplomacy, and invention in trying to take care of his family, himself, and his planet all at once.”

– The Horn Book