What to know Before you Read
Book: The Bad Guys in Alien vs Bad Guys (Book 6 in the series)
Author: Aaron Blabey
Publication Date: 2017
Suggested Age: 6-11 yrs.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Summary: The Bad Guys are finally recognized as heroes! But will they live to get back to earth?
Aliens vs. Bad Guys Review:
This is book six in a series. They are all fairly short (under 50 pages) and each one presents a crisis, resolves it, and then moves us on to a fresh crisis. The premise of the series is that a number of “bad guys” (a wolf, a shark, a snake, etc.) have decided that they want to be “good guys” and are thrown from crisis to crisis as they work to convince the world they are now good.
At the end of book 5 they discovered that their arch-enemy so far, the guinea pig Dr. Rupert Marmalade, was not a guinea pig but a monstrous alien creature. Trapped on the moon, they must figure out a way to outwit the alien and prevent an invasion of earth.
One other note – from a Christian standpoint we are, needless to say, talking about characters going from evil to good under their own power. Not theologically correct (this is a kid’s book, after all) – but it can open things up for discussion (see below for an example).
What We Liked About Aliens vs. Bad Guys
What I love about these books is that there is evil and good. And the evil is not (as we so often see today) explained away as having a bad upbringing or bad parents, etc. For those of you with a philosophical bent, this is the influence of post-modern thought. Not here. The “Bad Guys” were genuinely bad and made a decision to change. They do not change overnight – indeed, one of the major plot points in this book centers on how much one of the characters has really changed. And they run into some who are good and some who are evil.
The art is good and will delight the age these books are targeted to. My only complaint is that we are always left with a new crisis brewing – good for book sales, but from a parental standpoint I would like the story to close a little better (then again, it has gotten me to read 6 of them).
Aliens vs. Bad Guys Discussion Questions:
(1) Which character do you like best – wolf, shark, snake, piranha, or tarantula? Why?
(2) The “Bad Guys” all want to change and be “Good Guys”. Can we change like they want to all by ourselves or do we need help to do it?
(3) Do you have friends you can count on when things go wrong? Who are they?
(4) Have you ever been worried that one of your friends was going to leave you?
(5) What would you do if you were trapped with an alien?
What did you think of the book?
Check out the box set for books 1-5, book 6 and book 7 on Amazon below!
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