Giles is a middle child sandwiched between an extremely bright older brother and a musical prodigy younger sister. He feels like the overlooked part of the sandwich. His skills are tree climbing and poetry writing. But it is Giles who discovers a plot in which aliens are trying to sell the Earth and evict all the humans to a planet that is a wasteland. This ordinary boy has to step up and save the Earth.But Giles isn't alone. He can invite three other children to help him. He has to invite his best friend Toshi because that is just what you do. You invite your best friend. He invites his younger sister to be part of the quest. Then he has to decide between his goody-goody but very bright brother or his friend Navida who is an environmentalist and blogger. He does choose his brother Bobby but Navida has enough hints that she is able to help too.Giles also has the help of his lawyer at the Halls of Universal Justice. She is blue, has cotton candy hair, is just about his age, and is a very busy and responsible lawyer. Her name is Tula and she has lots of access to wonderful alien gadgets to help in Giles' quest. Did I mention that he had just 24 hours to clean up the island of Manhattan by removing all the litter and graffiti. This was a cute, well-written story about the power of ordinary kids. It had the sort of humor that will appeal to many middle graders. Giles is a good hero but not a perfect one. He gets sidetracked and sometimes I gets a little obsessed with being a superhero. He is jealous of his older brother but a loving protector of his newly-widowed grandmother. The wonderfully unique alien characters add a lot of interest and excitement to the story. I will admit that one of my favorites was the traffic meter named Stanley who seemed less than useful but really came through in the end.This is fun science fiction for middle graders. I recommend it.
