Review - Wyatt and Kamryn, Children from Outer Space

Wyatt and Kamryn, Children from Outer Space
by Nancy Jane
Date: 2020
Publisher: Matador
Reading level: C
Book type: illustrated chapter book
Pages: 7
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Wyatt and Kamryn are different from most children. They came from far far away, a planet called Karuta in the solar system of Athena. They were sent to earth to make a positive difference in the lives of the children and ask for their help. The earth is in danger of being destroyed. The world as we know it, our planet, has become dominated by hate and self-interest. Kamryn and Wyatt have been sent by the elders of the universe to ask the children to help save the world.

Will Wyatt and Kamryn succeed in changing the world to a better place? Will the earth be destroyed by evil people or saved by all the good in the world? Will the children and their parents be asked to be on the space ship that is coming for a peacekeeping mission?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

When our world is in such a sorry state, it's only natural to want to do something. Writing an overly preachy children's book probably isn't it.

I have to admit, that title sucked me in because it's just so laughably bad. Wyatt and Kamryn? And they're from outer space? You mean, Millennial baby-name trends have extended past our own solar system?

The main problem I have with this is that it reads like an elementary school writing assignment. The plot is silly (Wyatt and Kamryn, the titular space children, are sent to Earth to stop hate); the character development is nonexistent (it consists of giving the characters names); the writing is weak, tense-confused, and repetitive; and the illustrations are heavily loaded toward the back half of the book when Kamryn is describing other solar systems and galaxies (which are all rather uncreatively named things like Athena, Neptuna, Plutonas, and Oceaniaqua). The solution to everything, according to this book, is to just stop bullying and racism. That's a solution to some things, but probably isn't going to do much about the impending destruction of Earth.

The whole thing comes across as super preachy, to the point where it's off-putting. And it doesn't even make sense. When the elders return to collect the space children, they basically pull a, "Nope, too late. Suffer and die, humans!" And this is all because the elders felt that there was still hate on Earth. (Condemning all people on a planet to certain death just because some of them are hateful? That sounds fair and totally not hateful at all...)

But it really doesn't matter, because this is one of those books that uses the tired old dream trope. Yes, we find out at the end that all of this was just Wyatt having a sunstroke-induced nap on the beach. (At least that explains why the aliens are named Wyatt and Kamryn.)

Our species may be facing an ecological catastrophe. But writing books imploring children to sit next to someone who looks different is kind of a strange way to solve the problem. Discrimination and environmentalism may have some overlap, but in a more complicated way than this book implies. As it is, the message is that stopping interpersonal hate will solve the environmental crisis. And that makes very little sense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Matador for providing a digital ARC.

Plot: 0/5
Characters: 0/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Illustrations: 1/5
Originality: 1/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 1 out of 5