Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn by Greg Leitich Smith (review)

The Mercury Inn’s prime location on the Space Coast makes the kitschy but wellmaintained motel a hot spot for Florida vacationers, especially during launches from nearby Cape Canaveral. Aidan has spent many of his twelve-going-on-thirteen years helping his parents run the place, occasionally aided by his best friend Louis, who, as a UFO enthusiast, loves the area. When a massive power outage delays a launch, the sighting of an unknown aircraft over the motel sets off a media frenzy focused on the Mercury, but the boys’ investigation uncovers something even bigger: at least one of the residents at the Inn may be more than a little bit out of this world. Smith’s easygoing narration pulls the sci-fi adventure pace back from pulse-pounding to a pleasing almost-languidness, giving younger audiences a chance to dip into the genre while avoiding full-blown scares. That doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of interest, though: Louis’s insistence that a UFO was involved in the car crash two years ago that left him using a prosthetic leg but left Aidan unscathed is resolved with a truly mind-bending twist. Additionally, a recurring chapter cap of “trending topics” and news headlines lends a contemporary touch, while Arnold’s bug-eyed and angular line drawings add visual interest. Budding nerds will appreciate Smith’s casual sprinkling in of pseudoscientific details that will likely send them Googling to find out more about the Vile Vortices or the Montauk Monster. This will be a gentle liftoff on the alien invasion concept, prepping readers for weightier books like Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday (BCCB 2/08) or perhaps catching readers not often interested in extraterrestrial exploits.