Synopsis:

Would you eat your best friend if your parents told you to?  Better known as Dbrrrksh on the Home World, Deborah is a 6th grade alien girl living with her family´s secret: they eat people. 

Her parents are preparing Earth to be the next fast food stop for their species.   To make things worse, they tell her she must prove her loyalty to the Home World by snacking on Willy, the boy she has a secret crush on. 

What´s a girl with an overskin to do?  Deborah is a flesh eating alien with a conscience that you just can't help but like.  HUNGRY is a hillarious novel that gives a sympathetic look to life in middle school that both young people and adults will happily devour.

Book Excerpt:

Hungry

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By Alethea Eason

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2007 Alethea Eason
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780060825546

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Chapter One

Coffins in the Living Room

On the first day of school, Mr. Bartlett said algebra was good for us, the way protein was. I didn't know about that, but two months later, he was still droning on about the value of x, and my best friend Willy was slinking lower and lower in his seat. I'm good at math, and I knew I had to do something. That day at recess I offered to tutor him, but he just said, "Save yourself, Deborah, I'm a lost cause."

Nobody knows this, but Deborah's not even my name. It's just the closest in English to my real one, which is impossible for people to pronounce. Even I have trouble saying it. There were a lot of things Willy didn't know about me. He had no idea how weird my family was. So I just stuck to my plan: I told him to think of algebra as a language that used numbers instead of words. But my example was beyond him.

"Huh?" he said, and then ducked as a ball whizzed by his head.

"Freak," Alicia Henderson called out. She had deliberately kicked the ball at him.

It was October 1, the first day of Halloween, according to Willy. His family celebrated the holiday all month long, and he'd come to school in a vampire's cape to get into the spirit. I thought he was brave for wearing the cape thirty days before the main event. I also respected his conviction that he had the right to dress in a way that reflected his family's values, because Alicia wasn't the only one who gave him a hard time.

Alicia was skinny, all arms and legs, constantly spinning plots, thinking of ways to be the center of attention.

She and I had gone to school together since kindergarten, and she'd never been nice to me. Last year in fifth grade, Willy and his dad, Fred, moved to Prattville from Sacramento. When he started coming to school looking like the Wolf Man, Alicia was especially cruel. Sixth grade wasn't going to be any different.

Willy glared at her. If I didn't distract him, he'd be upset for the rest of the day, just what Alicia wanted.

"Never mind her," I said. "If you want help in math, I'll call my mom to see if it's okay for me to come to your house after school and help you with your homework."

I'm pretty stubborn, and I wasn't going to give up on my friend. Mr. Bartlett had told the class that on October fifteenth everyone was required to try out for the class team for the Math Champs contest that was to be held in January, whether they stank in math or not. (Okay, he didn't exactly use the word "stink.") One sixth grader every year was also awarded the Math Champ crown, and I just knew the award would belong to me.

Our class team would compete with teams from the other sixth grade classes. I wanted Willy to at least get through the first couple of rounds during the tryouts.

Willy still stared at Alicia.

"Hey, I asked you a question," I said, tapping him on his shoulder.

He looked back at me, the scowl fading from his face. "Oh, sure, Deborah, you could finally meet Margie."

Margie was Willy's dad's girlfriend. She'd just quit her job in Sacramento and moved in with them.

Mom said that going to Willy's was fine. She was putting together a huge Avon order and this would give her time to deliver it. I just had to be home by four-thirty.

That afternoon on the way to his house, Willy said, "No one else knows this yet, but Dad and Margie are getting married. Guess where?"

"Where?"

"In the cemetery at ten minutes before midnight on Halloween. Isn't that cool?"

"I guess?" I said, trying to be polite.

Fred's video store had the biggest horror-movie collection in Northern California, including some really rare old ones. Still, the wedding sounded bizarre. Wasn't Fred taking this interest a little too far?

Even stranger was what I saw as I walked into his living room. The couch was gone. Instead, three coffins were lined up in front of the television set. Each had a big pillow for a backrest.

I could tell which coffin was Willy's right away; it was the shortest.

"What are these?" I asked.

"They're for Halloween." Willy grinned. "Margie thought of it when she found out we have cousins who are undertakers. We're using them to watch TV." Then he saw the look on my face and got defensive. "They're comfortable, Deborah. It's a shame to waste them on the dead."

Since it was a nice day, we went out to the patio. Margie brought us a plate of chocolate-chip cookies. I didn't take one, hoping I didn't appear rude. Unfortunately a loud growl came from my midsection.

"Have some cookies, Deborah," Margie told me, offering me the plate.

"She can't," Willy said. "She has a lot of allergies and can only eat these weird green wafers."

I nodded and pulled one out of my pocket to show to her. I bit into it and felt it fizz in my mouth, which did nothing to curb my appetite.

"Oh, that is a shame," Margie said. "You must have a very delicate system."

If she only knew how wrong she was.

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Author Comment:

Please read more about Hungry at www.aletheaeason.com. My fantasy novel Heron´s Path is at www.heronspath.blogspot.com. My blogs are at www.aletheaeason.blogspot.com and www.aletheaeason.livejournal.com

Topics/Categories:

Aliens, Best Friends, Humorous, Invasion, Middle Grade Fiction, Reluctant Readers, Science Fiction

Genre:

Adolescence, Children's Fiction, Comedic Science Fiction, Humor, Science Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction

Type of Work:

Novel

Publishers:

HarperCollins

Purchase From:

Amazon
American Book Company

Original Publish Date:

October 2, 2008

Formats and associated ISBNs:

0060825545 978-0060825546

Reading Guides:

A teaching guide can be found at www.aletheaeason.com.

Formats:

Hardcover

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