Reading Level:  9-12

I have to admit, I have a weakness for a good girl-adventure story (which is distinctly different from a good-girl adventure story), and Close Encounters of a Third-World Kind, at its best, offers just that. Not the kid about to lose a limb kind of adventure, but a kid-out-in-the-world, kid faced with (almost literally) cliff-hanging difficulties, kid keeps going story...  and reader happily treks along for the ride.

Due to her father's upcoming medical mission trip, Annie and her family (including little sister Chelsea and their mother, but not their dog) must move to Nepal for a few months. Annie, in typical pre-teen-narrator fashion, doesn't want to go, doesn't want to have anything to do with her little sister, and is generally unhappy with the whole situation. But before the story gets too bogged down, Annie's in Nepal"”helping with medical emergencies, exploring a new culture, and coming nose-to-nose with an unfriendly water buffalo. With much aplomb and even a sense of humor, Annie handles it all.

Also refreshing is the fact that both parents are alive (no dead moms, yeah!) and no character is made into a gratuitous bad-guy. The tensions are believable and the interplay of the characters are a pleasure to follow. I'm not sure why they chose Close Encounters, with its outer space implications, for part of the title, but the third-world setting is well developed for its readers and it's definitely the kind of book I' d like to see more of.

— Jennifer Spray Doering, Member SCBWI