Description
Hali Greengard thinks she's a freak. She's a twin from Hexa, a planet where twins are always Daka together.Except for her. She is Luma.
When the navigation system on her family's interplanetary cruiser goes haywire, an ordinary family holiday turns into a nightmare. They are hurtled through space with no known destination, finally dropping into orbit six days later around a small, unlisted planet in the Milky Way called Earth.
The family is welcomed by two of Earth's inhabitants, who call themselves Humans but bear a striking resemblance to Lumas. Hali finds herself strangely comfortable in this unfamiliar world, where her Daka brother stands out like a sore thumb, not her. Soon they discover that space travel is banned on Earth, and they are, infact, fugitives from the law. Things go from bad to worse when they're spotted by the nosy kids from the farm next door, who report them to their mother, the local cop.
With their new friends languishing in jail and an all points alert out on the 'dangerous aliens' (as the Earth authorities have dubbed them), Hali and her family must work quickly to save Liam and Jodi. Along the way they discover that Lumas and Humans might have more in common than they thought.
This fast-paced intergalactic adventure is a story of family, friendship, and discovering who you really are.
Review
Hali and her family are off on vacation from their planet Hexa when their navigation system fails and they aresent hurtling towards the uncharted outer reaches of the Milky Way.
Luckily, Liam and Jodi (two earthlings) are busy searching for signals from outer space. They are searching for Liam’s sister, who broke the strict earth rules and set off into outer space 14 years earlier with her husband. She hasn’t been heard from since, and they desperately want proof that she is alive.
Hali is quite exceptional back on Hexa. When the Daka breed with Luma, twins always arrive who are both Daka. Only Hali is Luma, making her very human-like compared to her shorter, stockier and more nimble Dakabrother, Zeb.
Fortunately, when they land on earth in a remote region of Australia, Hali and her mother can pass themselves off as humans, and English is close enough to an old Luma language that communication is okay. But all spacetravel is banned on earth, because of a large freak accident many years ago, when a huge spaceship sent to search for a habitable planet exploded. As a result, they will all be imprisoned if they are discovered…
When it looks like the navigation system had actually reverted to a homing one, after it was recovered from a crashed spaceship many years earlier by Hali’s Dad, something strange is going on. There are many other connections too, and as we learn the truth about earlier events, will Hali be able to convince the authorities that they come in peace?
This is an action- packed intergalactic adventure that highlights the need for scientific progress and with themes of misinformation, space travel, acceptance and family it is a wonderful read for those aged 11 to 15.
Teacher Notes supplied by the Publisher are available on our website for this title.
Reviewed by Rob
