Books

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

By: Florence Kizza

I wanted to read this book because I knew that it was going to be a movie, and I believe that knowing it was going to be a movie affected the way I read it.

The book starts with a warning: “The events in this book are real. Names and places have been change to protect the Lorien Six, who remain in hiding. Take this as your first warning. Other civilizations do exist. Some of them seek to destroy you.”

Whoa. What an intro! Left me thinking, “What is he talking about?!” Left me wanting to jump right into the book — which I did.

I Am Number Four is the story of John Smith. He is one of nine aliens who have come to live on Earth when their planet Lorien was destroyed by evil aliens from another planet. Unfortunately for them and us (the Earthlings), they were followed and are being pursued by the evils aliens — Mogadorians. Not only do the Mogadorians want to kill the nine Loriens and their travel companions, we find out in the book that they also have it out to destroy Earth. But here’s the catch — the nine Loriens are bound by a charm that will only allow them to be killed off in order of their numbers. The book starts with the death with of Number Three.

Overall, I thought this was a good read. First of all, I love the story premise. It takes aliens and life on other planets, an idea that has been written about time and time again, and gives it a fresh spin. As the book progresses, we learn more about John and what happened to Lorien. We discover John’s powers as he does.

But even as all this superhuman extraordinary stuff is happening to John, he really just wants to be a normal teenager. Not move around all the time. Get settled in high school. Make friends. Fall in love. This struggle forms the heart of the book — can John succeed in being a normal teenager as well as a hunted alien?

The way the scenes are written in the book lend themselves perfectly to a big screen. The actions scenes will be epic. The backdrop of a small town in Ohio will make for beautiful scenery and a heart wrenching musical score.

The Power of Six, the second book in the Lorien Legacies series, will be released in mid-2011. You can bet that I will be picking it up to see what lies ahead for the Loriens.

One final note: According to the Author’s Note, Pittacus Lore is “Lorien’s ruling Elder. He has been on Earth for the last twelve years, preparing for the war that will decide Earth’s fate. His whereabouts are unknown.” Pittacus Lore has kept up the pseudonym, even providing an interview to EW.com where talks about writing the story of his people on Earth. In reality, Pittacus Lore is the duo of James Frey and Jobie Hughes. But I just love the pseudonym and the fact that they are running with it!

—

You can now purchase “I Am Number Four” at our TYF store here!

Gabrielle Bondi

Gabrielle founded The Young Folks in 2010 with Luciana Villalba. Since then, she has served as editor-in-chief and oversees the staff and editorial content on The Young Folks. She recently graduated from Northwestern University and is now working on her master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism.