Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

By Frank Cottrell-Boyce

A one-of-a-kind story of heart, humor, and finding one’s place in the universe.

Prez knows that the best way to keep track of things is to make a list. That's important when you have a grandfather who is constantly forgetting. And it's even more important when your grandfather can't care for you anymore and you have to go live with a foster family out in the country.

Prez is still learning to fit in at his new home when he answers the door to meet Sputnik—a kid who is more than a little strange. First, he can hear what Prez is thinking. Second, he looks like a dog to everyone except Prez. Third, he can manipulate the laws of space and time. Sputnik, it turns out is an alien, and he's got a mission that requires Prez's help: the Earth has been marked for destruction, and the only way they can stop it is to come up with ten reasons why the planet should be saved.

Thus begins one of the most fun and eventful summers of Prez's life, as he and Sputnik set out on a journey to compile the most important list Prez has ever made—and discover just what makes our world so remarkable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780062643643

Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an award-winning author and screenwriter. Millions, his debut children's novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He is also the author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Cosmic, Framed, The Astounding Broccoli Boy and Runaway Robot. His books have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children's Fiction Award (now the Costa Book Award) and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth was shortlisted for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal and selected for the inaugural WHSmith Tom Fletcher Book Club. Frank is a judge for the 500 Words competition and the BBC's One Show As You Write It competition. Along with Danny Boyle, he devised the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics. He has written for the hit TV series Dr Who and was the screenwriter for the hit film Goodbye Christopher Robin.

Reviews for Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

[dcoward_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm surprised by the darkness in what I thought would be a fairly lighthearted tale of an alien (most everyone thinks he is a dog) who is trying to find 10 great things about Earth. The young protagonist is spending the summer with a family on their farm, but he has come from an orphanage he was placed in when his grandfather developed Alzheimer's .

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Prez Mellows is cast into foster care when his only relative, his beloved grandfather, an old retired sailor, develops Alzheimer's and can no longer care for the boy. He is sent for the summer to live with a farming family who takes in a foster child every summer, temporarily. Prez does not talk. He can talk, he just chooses not to. His world is turned upside down when a slightly insane alien named Sputnik shows up at the farm the same day he does. Sputnik claims that he has a mission to take care of Prez, and also that the Earth will be destroyed in in the Autumn unless he can come up with ten good reasons to spare it. And no buildings. Buildings are boring. And just to make the summer even more confusing, although Sputnik can read Prez's mind, making communication easy even though Prez doesn't talk... nobody but Prez sees that Sputnik is a brilliant, insane and possibly dangerous alien... everyone else thinks he is a dog.Three quarters of the book are the adventures Prez has with this bizarre being from another world who defies not only the laws of Scotland, but quite frequently the laws of physics as well. It is a bizarre tale. If you love strangeness for strangeness' sake with a healthy dash of humor, this book is for you. For me, most of the book fell into the category of, "good enough I want to finish it, but not to my taste enough that I sort of piddled my way through it slowly."Until the last 50 pages or so. Those pages made up for the rest of it, making me give it four stars instead of two or three. In spite of the lunacy of the story, it was a very human book with a heart, a point, and an extremely satisfying ending.

[amandabock-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Can't decide between 3 and 4 stars. Took a while to get into, but I liked it in the end. It's a wackier story than I'm used to from FCB, but I'll give him credit for trying something new.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Alien visits earth with intent to save earth, looking like a dog because of encounter with Laika.