Alien Superstar #2 Lights, Camera, Danger has alien action and mild drama

Alien Superstar was one of the best middle-school books of 2019. It crackled with humor, action, and a carefree vibe that ages 9 and up want to experience. Buddy Burger is the titular alien in the book. He’s escaped his home planet because there was an uprising happening that wasn’t bringing the best of the planet to the forefront. His grandmother put him in a ship and sent him to Earth where he crashed onto the backlot of a theme park that also does television production. From here his actual alien form allowed him to be the perfect ‘costumed’ performer on a hit show. It also helped that his costume, Zane Tracy, which is his human form, is a very cute teenage boy. In Alien Superstar Lights, Camera, Danger! Buddy is back and elements from his past are here too. Are they on his side or have they been an evil squadron?

Lights, Camera, Danger! Is great campy fun. This second book from the Alien Superstar series has most of the same zip and charm from the first book. Citizen Cruel is the heel this time around. She’s a shape-shifting alien from his planet’s security forces who has come to Earth in order to take Buddy back. Another aspect that’s thwarting Buddy is his ego, fame, and teenage sensibilities. He’s quickly becoming the go-to star on that television show and his coworkers are noticing. This all adds up to stress that’s impacting our teenage alien in ways that are far more excessive than it would our human physiology.  

Reading Alien Superstar #2 is like welcoming a friend back to your living room. Those middle school readers will enjoy reading about Buddy and understand all of the emotions he’s going through. The constant conflict of weighing popularity, family, friends, and what makes you legitimately happy are things that are very tough to reconcile, much less deal with in real-life.

Some middle school readers and those slightly older readers will recognize where the story in Lights, Camera, Danger! is going early on in the book. For those readers, the drama between friends will take too long for Buddy and his friends to resolve itself. There is still a fair amount of comedy and action in this book, but it doesn’t zing with the same crispness of the first book.

Having said that, Lights, Camera, Danger! is still lots of fun, and ages 8-12 will love it. For us, the difference is that the first book was a breezy, happy book with no side effects. This second book has a fair amount of teenage drama between friends. I hope that they show up at my recital. He’s being kind of a jerk. How can I be a better friend and still accomplish all of the things that I want to do? The book isn’t laden with teenage problems; the cover of the book has a multi-eyed alien on the cover after all. And, the inclusion of these age-appropriate issues are completely in line with what middle-grade readers are experiencing, most likely for the first time.

With Alien Superstar book #2, Lights, Camera, Danger! the magic is still there and the foundation is set for a successful book #3. Personally-and for the sake of the series older readers I hope that it has a bit less drama and just as much action so that it firmly regains its footing.

Alien Superstar book #2, Lights, Camera, Danger! is by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. It’s available on Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books.

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