Starred Review As if the huge whale decomposing on a nearby beach isn't enough of an assault on the senses, town newcomer Margot finds herself pulling a slimy, purple, tentacled blob from classmate Mateo's neck. Add in a set of fabulously disgusting climactic explosions, and the two middle-­schoolers discover that many of the town's adults, from the mayor to Mateo's single dad, have been taken over by a squidlike, mind-controlling alien queen bent on conquest. Miller spins this classic premise (see Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters) into a suspenseful, thoroughly entertaining comedy featuring a pair of protagonists with sharply contrasting characters and abilities: he an easygoing, go-along-to-get-along type; she a focused, intense, nationally prominent junior wrestler capable of wiping the floor with any attacker, but with little in the way of social skills. Making their unlikely matchup even more delectable, the author casts the two as the leads in a school production of Romeo and Juliet, setting the stage for an opening night that definitely doesn't go the way the Bard mapped it out. Though the course of their developing friendship has run anything but smooth, Margot and Mateo's individual blends of resilience and vulnerability prove complementary. Foodies may never look at calamari in quite the same way again, but readers who prefer their science fiction dished up with gross substances will be delighted. 

Can two unlikely sixth-grade friends save the world from mind- and body-controlling cephalopod-like aliens in time to star in the middle-school play? With a diverse cast of characters, gross-out humor, and just a dash of Shakespeare, this zany yet heartfelt sci-fi adventure set in a small coastal town near Seattle will thrill fans of Adam Rex.