Review: A Teenage Adventure Story with Contemporary Relevance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2012
Four is an attention grabbing story that is written to a teenage audience.  If you can't get your teenager to read, recommend they give this book a try.  I bet they won't put it down.  The story is about two teenagers who come across visitors from the planet Four.  The aliens have been surveying earth and learning all about life on earth - they learned English from watching CNN.  The author interjects political and social commentary and often displays a dry sense of humor, describing the architecture of the teenager's new high school as "neo-penal," for example.Upon meeting the alien, the teenage characters are faced with such questions as: Why is he here?  How do we protect him?  How do we introduce him to people at large? and my favorite hypothetical, If there was one person that we should introduce the alien to first, who should that be? A great dinner or car conversation topic for you and your teenager - a topic that just might get them to talk.There are many references to historic events and people from the last quarter of the 20th century that is sure to get your teenager referencing Wickipedia.  The story is also relevant to other contemporary events.  Namely, the frustration with the conflict in the Middle East. The teenage characters and the aliens set out on a mission to end the fighting between two long-term Middle East rivals.  Your teenager will find how they go about this both exciting and vicariously gratifying - who wouldn't want to step in with "alien power" and say, "Enough already?"