sadly, before i could download this title, netgalley took it off their catalog. that means i can’t review this one. HOWEVER, i will be checking in with my library to see if i can get a copy and review it that way

I had a lot of fun reading this book, it was a great start to a children's series. It definitely could be enjoyed by all-ages and had a fun plot.

My 9 year old read started this book but i think she was just a bit too young for it, will archive it and let her try again in another year or so.

Excellent YA fare - probably best suited to the lower end of that age-range, but still very readable by this 70-year-old!

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

I remember reading this book about 6 or 7 years ago and enjoying it immensely. Nice to see it back in circulation as part of a trilogy.

Thank you Netgalley and Mitch Benn for sending me an e-copy of Terra in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting through this story. I found it to be really boring and it only started to get better when the war began. I tried so hard to love it, but Terra just wasn't it for me.

There were some great elements though. I loved how the Mlml people had their own language and it was spoken throughout the book. I also like how the author explains to us at the beginning the ways we can tell what language the characters are speaking. The writing style was very fun and light-hearted. The story reminds me so much of Lilo and Stitch but reversed, where Lilo is on Stitch's planet instead of the other way around.

In conclusion, though the book wasn't everything I was hoping for, it was fun and creative. The humour was fantastic and the world building was really beautiful and different. Terra is so unlike any book and that's what made it unique. I just wish I was able to love it as much as I wanted to when I first saw what it was about.

Well I was unaware of this book's existence until the seven-year old novel was reprinted back in 2020 by the author – the well-known satirical songsmith, loud stand-up comedian, and noted Only Connect contestant, Mitch Benn. It would appear to be self-published now, so with added patreon adverts and suchlike, his fans can see what he can do in the world of whimsical sci-fi.

And he makes a pretty good go of it. Our lead alien, Lbbp, gets witnessed by two horrid human parents by mistake, and when they scarper, leaving their new-born in their car, he decides to rescue her, take her home and – if his superiors will let him – bring her up as his own. And of course they do, leaving Terra as he calls her the sole alien in a world of anti-grav thingy-things, brain-implanting educational devices, and occasional contact with the most aged, most supreme and most knowledgeable species in the entire universe.

Seeing as copious people have said this has the DNA of Douglas Adams, I'll have to respond to that. It doesn't really, but probably has more than that Eoin Colfer effort did. The vowel-less multisyllabic nomenclature of the alien species that Lbbp belongs to doesn't ever feel welcome enough to be sustained over a whole trilogy of novels. And I remain unsure how vital a teenaged me would have felt finishing the three books to have been (this is deemed 12 and up, and didn't really strike me as hitting the target of a young audience or the adult reader).

But there is certainly merit here, even if the book remains a little too woolly and punch-free to get that across. We have something much more like authorial foreshadowing than the comedic call-backs I might have expected, and tangents such as the way culture crosses the galaxies on the whole seem just that – tangents and no more. Some of the characters have quite peculiar arcs (is one of the teachers a baddy as you're led to think, or what?!) but when it boils down to it the emotional path Terra and Lbbp have is quite strong – just about strong enough to get across the themes of belonging, family, and acceptance.

In summary I'm not surprised the original publishers passed on Book Three here, thinking the red ink would probably run out in the editing, but I'm also quite glad the author has managed in his stand-up-free year to write the conclusion and get what he wanted out there. There is a little too much of these pages that show this to be a labour of love as opposed to a universally-loveable book, but I didn't regret reading them. Three and a half stars.

This was such a fun read !! thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
Terra is rescued from a wrecked car and taken back to an alien planet by Lbbp, her saviour. She grows up on this planet, learning in their schools. There are some funny moments as she learns with her classmates, and we meet them and get to know them.
She has some exciting moments when she introduces some Human-specific activities to Lbbp's people. Hilarity ensues !
An invasion by a neighbouring warlike clan causes problems, but Terra helps to resolve them. The ending is open, and I am looking forward to more of Terra's adventures

I LOVED this book! It's rare to find good science fiction for middle-grade readers, and this is one of the best I've read. It will appeal to many different kids, because it includes a lot of hard "science" but also has a realistic fiction feel, since this focus of the story is on relationships, family, and identity. I will definitely purchase it for my elementary school library.

I enjoyed Benn’s writing style, which is direct and confiding with slices of omniscient viewpoint, which tends to happen in children’s fiction. But it is also shot through with a wry humour, which is handy in diffusing the horror of some of the more shocking scenes in this book. This is far from being a cosy read – it deals very directly with prejudice on all sorts of levels, guilt, regret and loss. And it doesn’t necessarily offer any comforting answers, which is fine by me. I think that fiction is very good at demonstrating that the world is frequently a violent, messy, unjust place to be – and maybe offering some coping strategies, or clear warnings. That goes for adults as well as children.

What caught me was the poignant passage about Mr and Mrs Bradbury right at the start of this book, which contrasted starkly with Lbbp’s take on what is going on, and leads to him taking the baby home with him. It isn’t a long book and the pace motors along at a good clip, which is what you want for younger readers. If I have any grizzles, I felt Terra was just a bit too calm and up together, given that she is always the exception and oddity – but it wasn’t a dealbreaker. There were moments when I sniggered aloud – particularly at the reaction of the human scientists when they realise there is actually a spaceship headed their way.

Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining science fiction adventure aimed at pre-teens, though this granny also found it great fun. While I obtained an arc of Terra from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

Really enjoyed this book. Terra is a little girl full of heart, abducted by an alien as a baby Terra is raised on a distant planet by aliens. Embracing her differences she brings a lovely side of humanity to an alien race.

Couldn't put it down towards the end. So many twists and turns and a moment when I actually put my hand over my mouth. And another moment when I couldn't read any further because my eyes were full of tears.

I loved the way language was portrayed. And I did get a bit of a Harry Potter feel from Terra's friends with Fthfth being super smart and Pktk being loyal and Ron like :-) also there was a sporting game which I didn't understand. But the book was unique enough to stand up against these similarities.

I was slightly disappointed by the ending, Terra had a difficult choice to make and I wish she'd made the other choice. I can't wait to find out what Terra's future holds, especially now I've heard there's a third book in the trilogy.

Cute story for the younger audience. The addition of vowels to the alien names would help make it more readable.