Reviewer: Alex McPhee
Age: 10

Alien Invaders looked interesting cover-wise. My initial reaction was “Aw, cute!” But the moment you crack the book open, you will find these animals are anything but cute. The book is about animals that are not in their normal habitat and are killing other native animals.

The book introduces you to 60 starlings, released by Eugene Scheffelin in an effort to beautify New York. The starlings thrived at the expense of the other, more timid species. After that, there is an article on the “Common Human”, invading ecosystems worldwide to earn small slips of paper with $s on them. Other animals will hitchhike in a suitcase, or a plane, and some are plants, but all of them are destructive.

I liked the vivid descriptions, but disliked the lack of information on the species being invaded. I learned a lot, though, and it was interesting and informative all the way to page 56. A very good book, I gave it a 9.3 out of 10!

(Originally published in the November/December 2008 issue of YES Mag.)