Dancing with an Alien [Hardcover]

Mary Logue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 2000

BRANKO:

I am here.
On this very green Earth. The sun shines for fourteen hours and thirty-three minutes today.
The sky is blue like they said it would be.
I am here on a mission. I have only a short time to do what I was sent here to do.
I am here to find a female.

TONIA:

I went down to the beach today.
There was one boy I'd never seen before.
Quite tall. Gold complexion. Foreign-looking.
He watched me swim.
He was with an older man. I think it was the one whose daughter disappeared a few years ago.

They would give the world for love.

Branko is here on Earth for only a short time. He has come on a grave mission: He must find a female. He must bring her home. What will happen to her on his planet isn't quite clear. What is clear is that without her, the planet could die.

Tonia loves summer. But something is different about thsi summer. Her best friend is changing. Her family is fighting. And then she meets someone unlike anyone she's ever met before. This summer could change everything.

When their worlds collide, it's like nothing Branko or Tonia could ever have imagined.

Mary Logue spins a chilling tale of deeply felt passion that takes root in the shadow of a desperate mission. The result is a love story unlike any other.

Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL), 2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers (ALA), and 2001 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8-10-In the same vein as Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate (Delacorte, 1997) and Patricia Windsor's The Blooding (Scholastic, 1996), a teen becomes involved in a doomed romance with a nonhuman lover. Tonia, a strong-minded 17-year-old, finds her first love when she saves an unusual young man from drowning. Once she discovers where he is from, she must decide whether to follow him to the stars or let him leave without her and lose his love forever. Branko, a visitor from another planet whose entire female population was lost to disease, has been sent to Earth to find a female willing to go back with him. He doesn't anticipate falling in love with the girl he chooses to help repopulate his planet, and he must choose between sacrificing his love for Tonia and watching her become a baby factory, or abandoning her to live her life normally on Earth and possibly seeing his race die. Chapters alternate between the young people's perspectives. Logue uses the agonizing choices and different voices to develop the characters with whom readers can sympathize. The prose reads cleanly, and while the end may be predictable to some, the process through which Branko and Tonia arrive at their decisions creates a bittersweet mood that can be appreciated by all.
Trish Anderson, Pinkerton Elementary School, Coppell, TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This easy-to-read romance will hook teenage girls who normally shy away from science fiction." -- Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1st edition (April 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060283181
• ISBN-13: 978-0060283186
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, Mildly Thought Provoking, July 5, 2002

By 

Jake Krauss (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with an Alien (Library Binding)

As a sci-fi fan with a romantic streak, I found this book enjoyable on both levels. Do not be fooled by the small size, however. This book is not for children. There is no graphic sex, but there are several technical references and a very short non-graphic scene.

I give this book four stars instead of three because of the final message. Putting women on a pedestal is not the same as respecting them as people. If a culture strongly admires women because of their ability to reproduce, they are not truly honouring women. Only wombs.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good example of bad "young adult" literature, July 4, 2005

By 

Mark Wilsonwood (Grapevine, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with an Alien (Hardcover)

Ed Iverson's review (see below) is right on target. This is just another in a long, long line of "young adult" novels in which the message boils down to: When you find the "right" guy, have sex with him. It doesn't really matter that, in this case, the "guy" is from another planet.
And from a science-fiction standpoint it leaves very much to be desired. It's strongly implied that Branko, a human-like alien, comes from a planet in our solar system. That's an idea that's outdated by at least a half century, if not much more than that.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A book that had potential....had..., July 21, 2001

By 

"menolly01" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with an Alien (Library Binding)

When I first saw this book I thought it had great potential. As an avid fan of the teen tv drama "Roswell" I thought, hey an alien, a girl....could be good. Alas I fear I was mistaken. "Dancing with an Alien" to me was full of sentimental nothing!.The scene was layed most colorfully but that is where the imagination stopped. I felt like I was reading a technical manual. The culmination scene in the end which the whole book builds up to, was like one sentence long. I'm sorry this may seem harsh but like I said I had expected more. I feel that this tale was only the bits and pieces of a once great, LONGER novel which I for one would have loved to read.