Far Out!

by Anne Bustard (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

From the author of Blue Skies comes a lively middle grade novel set in 1960s Texas about a young, alien-loving girl trying to clear her grandmother's good name in this mystery that has humor, hijinks, and heart in equal measure.

It's 1964, the Space Race is well underway, and eleven-year-old Magnolia Jean Crook and the other residents of Totter, Texas, are over the moon about UFOs.

The whole town is gearing up for the First Annual Come on Down Day--in just one week, they are hoping to host any and all space aliens who would like to visit Earth. But right before the kick-off party, a meteorite goes missing--and MJ's beloved grandmother Mimi, who is the vice president of the Totter Unidentified Flying Object Organization, is the prime suspect.

MJ is desperate to show the town that this Crook is not a thief. The only problem is that there is a lot of evidence against her, and Mimi herself isn't helping things. She's acting suspiciously, pulling disappearing acts, and worst of all, can't seem to answer any questions about where she was or what she was doing.

But much like UFOs, extraterrestrial visitations, and sending people to space, the impossible has been known to happen.

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ALA/Booklist

Bustard fills her cast with a realistic mix of friends, rivals, supportive parents, and neighborly townsfolk (many given animated faces by Rowland's vignettes at each chapter's head), capturing a vivid sense of the rhythms and atmosphere of small-town life in the early 1960s--inspired, she writes, by a real event staged in the 1970s. Readers fond of comfy tales set in small Southern towns (practically a genre all its own) will enjoy meeting Magnolia Jean.

Publishers Weekly

Cosmic questions merge with terrestrial affairs in this unhurried small-town mystery from Bustard (Blue Skies). Magnolia Jean Crook--sheriff's daughter, staunch believer in alien life, and aspiring detective--is as excited as anyone in 1964 Totter, Tex., for the upcoming First Annual Come On Down Day. Organized by funeral home owner Mr. Harrington for a local UFO organization's 10th anniversary, the event is intended to both capitalize on the region's history of otherworldly sightings and to attract "any and all space aliens who wish to visit. No RSVP required." The event hits a snag when a prized, anonymously owned meteorite integral to the festivities is stolen from the local library. Magnolia, in partnership with sixth grade classmate Nick Lawless, a drummer, swears to get to the bottom of the heist. When the meteorite is discovered in the shed of Magnolia's beloved and increasingly forgetful grandmother, the duo doubles down on their sleuthing to clear her name and bolster Totter's waning morale. A sometimes meandering plot centers solidly on the book's compassionate protagonist, whose colloquial narrative reflects the town's quirky affability, offers a loving view of an intergenerational relationship, and touches on themes of memory and belief. Magnolia reads as white; context clues hint at the town's diversity. An author's note concludes. Ages 8-12. Agent: Emily Mitchell, Wernick & Pratt. (Apr.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

 
Anne Bustard
Anne S. Bustard is the former co-owner of Toad Hall Children's Bookstore and an MFA graduate from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the middle grade novels Anywhere But Paradise, Blue Skies, and Far Out!, as well as two picture books: Rad! and Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly, which was an IRA Children's Book Award Notable and a Bank Street Book of the Year.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781665914208
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication date
April 16, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013030 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Multigenerational
JUV028000 - Juvenile Fiction | Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories
JUV016000 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | General
JUV053010 - Juvenile Fiction | Science Fiction | Alien Contact
Library of Congress categories
History
Lost and found possessions
Lost articles
Grandmothers
Mystery and detective stories
Detective and mystery fiction
Historical fiction
Texas
1951-
JUVENILE FICTION / General
Dementia
Novels

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