Snow! We're saved!

It just switched over from freezing rain/sleet/ice pellets to wonderful, driving, lightweight, fluffy snow. Yay! I don't care about being snowed in; I do care about my power lines breaking. It is all white out there and I am very, very relieved! 

Friday Five: Far-Out Places

And...today's Friday Five deals with books set in far-out places. Seeing as how the golden age of SF is ironically mostly in the past, some of these are oldies but goodies.

1.
Ingathering: The Complete People Stories, Zenna Henderson. Henderson was a schoolteacher in Arizona, and her short stories are well-grounded in everyday life. The People are much like us, another civilization who lived on another planet, that died. The People fled for a new home, and many ended up here. They look just like us, but have some abilities we don't. The stories have a similar flavor to Alexander Key's books. Adult, but accessible to MG and YA.

2.
The Forgotten Door, Alexander Key. About a boy who fell through a hole from his world to ours, who has powers but who knocked his head in the fall and can't remember who he is or how he arrived. It's set in the Appalacians, which you don't see often. Key is of course the author of the much more popular Escape to Witch Mountain, but he has several other lovely books. MG.

3.
The Doom Machine, Mark Teague. This book may have come out in 2009, but it harks back to the age of Key and Henderson. Teague is the author/illustrator of Dear Mrs. LaRue, and his humor carries through in this retro-50s MG novel of alien invasion and space exploration. Definitely to be paired with #4.


4.
The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex. Like Teague, Rex is also an illustrator. This book is also about aliens, but the adventure is on earth, and how the earthlings deal with the invasion. The main character, Tip, is a girl, but the boy has wild boy appeal (I cannot seem to prise it from my 9-year-old son's fingers). JLo, the friendly alien (they are known as The Boov) who accompanies our heroine, is a would-be cartoonist, and art scatters the pages most entertainingly.


5.
Lost Time, Susan Maupin Schmid.This also came out in the last year or two, only this takes place on an entirely different world. Violynne is the daughter of archaeologist who have disappeared. Naturally, the story ends up following after them. It's an unusual blend of mystery and sci fi and sort-of archaeology. MG, not really "girly" per se, but probably will appeal more to girls than boys.