Exchange Student

Daria is one of Earth's youngest licensed breeders of endangered species, and she has enough to do caring for her menagerie without having to cope with an exchange student from another planet.Besides Fen's color-shifting and endless questions, there is something about the way the lanky alien looks at her animals and his stubborn refusal to talk about the creatures of his own world that makes Daria nervous.Fen, on the other hand, couldn't be happier with his Earth family.Hoping for one pet, he finds himself in a zoo. With a sharp eye for human, alien, and animal ways, Kate Gilmore has written a fascinating tale.

About the Author :
Kate Gilmore is the author of several novels for young readers. Her research for The Exchange Student did not involve interplanetary travel, but she did visit primate houses and zoos in many cities and talked with scientists about binturongs and fennec foxes.

Review :
Gilmore brings new meaning to the concept of foreign-exchange students when she transplants nine teens from the planet Chela to Earth. Fen, a seven-foot alien with a passion for animals and problems controlling his emotion-produced color shifts, lands with a seemingly ideal family. The Wells host a breeding zoo for endangered animals, which is run by their 16-year-old daughter, Daria. But even in 2094, an alien and an earthling have communication problems. Fen is evasive and secretive about the animal life on his planet; Daria is curious. Gilmore makes a farfetched premise seem more reasonable with everyday details of life in the twenty-first century, sympathetic characters, and logical consequences. Add some lessons on ecology, and you've got a story that will appeal to readers on many levels. - Sept. 15, 1999 Booklist, ALA Daria, a licensed breeder of endangered species, cares for over forty animals in her specially designed bedroom, as well as numerous birds and other outside animals. Nevertheless, she finds herself ill-prepared for the introduction of a new species into her family's household when her mother volunteers to take in an exchange student from the planet Chela (the year is 2094). Over seven feet tall and pale gray in color -- except when intense emotions change his skin to vivid shades of pink, green, and red -- Fen responds to Daria's zoo with a curiously worshipful fascination. The plot thickens when the other Chelan exchange students-with whom Fen maintains contact by means of a secret video communicator-urge him to abduct a pair of animals. When Fen gains access to the gene bank at the Ark, the conservation center Daria works for, the stakes are raised even higher. The third-person narration alternates between Daria's and Fen's perspectives and sometimes shows events from a minor character's viewpoint, which helps all of the individuals to seem fully alive. Complex and thought-provoking, the novel integrates a wildlife-conservation theme thoroughly into the plot, setting, and characterization. And although the theme is expressed more urgently toward the end as tension rises -- Fen confesses that the animals of Chela have been extinct for five hundred years and that the "exchange students" have come to Earth specifically to try to repopulate their planet -- the strength of the novel as a whole keeps it from overwhelming the story with its cautionary message. Fascinating details about the animals in Daria's care and the conservation efforts undertaken at the Ark, as well as descriptions of Fen's quirky behavior, add texture and depth to an original tale. Horn Book Budding zoologist Daria lives in 2094, 70 years after an environmental crash; the near-extinction of many species of animals puts her in the enviable position of helping replenish Earth by raising creatures in a home zoo. Her family is cooperative (if not always agreeable) and financially able to help her feed and house llamas, hornbills, and binturongs. When her mother announces that Fen, an exchange student from the planet Chela, will be staying with them, Daria wonders if the tall grey alien will fit in. Fen, however, loves animals to an extraordinary degree, and Daria gains a companion and a sympathetic helper, who is oddly taciturn on the subject of Chelan fauna. Gilmore (Jason and the Bard, 1993) charts this story carefully, crafting the awkward nuances that give rise to culturalor in this case, interplanetarymisunderstandings. Fen is a convincing alien; he's humanoid, but markedly different from Daria, and his propensity for changing color with his emotions leads to an intriguing scene in which he tries to communicate with a chameleon. Underlying the growing friendship and understanding between Earthlings and Chelans is the slowly revealed horror of what has happened on Chelaan environmental disaster as devastating as a nuclear blast. Gilmore shows that Earth might end, not with a bang, but without a bleat, meow, bark, or chirp. Kirkus Reviews