Revenge of the Star Survivors
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Middle school meets the Dark Side in this grimly hilarious survival story of a sci-fi-obsessed eighth grader.
Clark Sherman's situation is desperate.
He's just crash-landed on an inhospitable planet--also known as Festus Middle School--where the natives don't take kindly to newcomers . . . particularly ones who love sci-fi and memorizing episodes of the hit TV show Star Survivors.
Hostile natives include violent bullies, uncaring teachers, and the fiendishly evil Principal Denton, and Clark realizes he'll be lucky enough to survive eighth grade, let alone thrive. But then, three kindred life forms make themselves known . . . and suddenly, Clark finds he not only has the will to survive, but the strength to fight back.
Sharp, painfully funny, and deeply moving, Revenge of the Star Survivors is a story for sci-fi fans-- and for anyone who's ever felt alone in this world. Michael Merschel's witty writing, by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, brings Clark's inner strength into the light.
Winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Jean Flynn Award for Best Children's Book
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this entertaining and empathic debut, an intrepid hero searches for intelligent life in the most dangerous place of all: middle school. Eighth grader Clark Sherman is forced to transfer to Festus Middle School after the year has started, thanks to his father's new job. Faced with a hostile environment filled with bullies and unfriendly adults, Clark frames his daily misadventures as a fraught space mission, la a captain's log: "While walking from science to social studies today, I had to pass through a hallway that is a nesting ground for some of Planet Festus's most vicious native inhabitants." After finding unexpected allies in two other outcasts, the paranoid Les and acerbic Ricki, Clark and his new friends discover that there's something shady about their authoritarian principal and the bullies he's protecting. Debut author Merschel uses Clark's SF passions from everything from Star Wars to his favorite (fictional) show, Star Survivors as a smart metaphor for coping with change, but the real heart of the story is in its complex characters, tongue-in-cheek tone, and emotional honesty. Ages 10 14.
