I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four

By Pittacus Lore

Harper, 2010. 440 pages. Science-fiction.

ISBN: 9780061969553

Reading/Interest Level: Ages 14+

Curriculum ties: Moving,

Booktalk Ideas: What’s your destiny?: Give some students cool tattoo stickers that are numbered. Explain to the students that two groups of aliens have come to earth. The good aliens have the stickers, and the evil aliens are trying to destroy the good aliens, but can only do so in a certain order. This book is about the fourth alien, who is currently being hunted, explain the story.

Challenge Issues: Language, violence

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

Ten years ago nine aliens came to earth to live, grow, learn, and hide while they wait for their special abilities to develop. Only they can defeat the evil Mogadorians who are trying to find and destroy them.

Plot Summary:

There are nine alien children on earth, hiding from the evil Mogadorians, another alien species that is striving to wipe out their species. The thing is, the children are numbered and the Mogadorians must kill them in order. Even if they find one, they can’t touch the child until the preceding number has been killed.

The book starts as Number Three is killed. When Number Four finds out, he and his protector become extremely cautious because they know that he is next. They move and take on new identities. Four starts developing certain powers called Legacies, powers that are necessary to successfully fight off the Mogadorians, but he’s only just learning

As he adjusts to his new life, Four starts to make friends and fall for a girl. During a Halloween festival when Four is with his friend Sam and his crush Sarah, a trick leaves them stranded in the woods where Four is attacked by the school bullies. He uses his legacies to fight off the bullies.

Though Four tries to keep his powers hidden it’s difficult and his lies and excuses start to pile up. When he’s caught and a video of him using his powers shows up online, the Mogadorians know right where to find Four and they come to attack in force.

Critical Evaluation:

This book has everything necessary to appeal to the general teen audience. Teens will easily be able to relate to the teen romance line between Four and Sarah, the ever supportive best friend in Sam, the difficulties of adjusting to a new school when Four moves, the protective and loving pet Bernie Kosar, and the feelings of having an overprotective parent shown in the relationship between Four and his protector, Henri. While this book is relatable on various levels, it also packs a ton of action and danger with the Mogadorians searching for and attacking Four. Four is in constant danger and must be extremely cautious about not letting his presence be known.

This book is mostly written from the first person view of Number Four, which allows the reader to be privy to all his inner feelings which is one of the reasons he’s so relatable. Four is like any other teen, except, well, he’s an alien with super powers. And he’s being hunted. But aside from that, he’s totally relatable!

About the Author:

Pittacus Lore is a pseudonym for James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

James Frey is the author of A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. After battling with alcohol addiction and spending time in rehab, he wrote A Million Little Pieces which was published in 2003 in America and the following year in the UK to critical acclaim. He wrote the sequel, My Friend Leonard about life after rehab, which was published in 2005 in the US and the year after in the UK.  James Frey now lives in New York with his wife, daughter and dog.

-from author fan site-

Jobie Hughes was born July 9, 1980, in Renton, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, but raised from the age of three in the quaint and mostly blue-collar town of Spencer, Ohio, population 747, which lies forty miles southwest of Cleveland.  He was a high school state champion in wrestling, attended Ohio University on an athletic scholarship, and graduated with a business degree in Management Information Systems, a major he had little interest in and one chosen for no other reason than, at age 20, he hadn't the slightest idea of what he wanted to do.  What followed were five wayward years earning minimal pay working shitty jobs, several of which he was fired from.  He started writing when he was 24 and, at age 27, left capitalism behind and moved to New York City to attend Columbia University’s School of the Arts.  He graduated in May 2009 with an MFA in Creative Writing (fiction).

-from author’s website-

Justification of Selection:

This is an adventurous book with challenges that will appeal to guys and a bit of a romance that will appeal to girls. It won a YALSA award as a “Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers” and has been recently made into a movie.