Amelia's parents are excited to reopen an old hotel in the middle of nowhere, but Amelia and her brother are definitely not as thrilled. They miss their old home, their old school, and their old friends. The caretaker, Tom, freaks Amelia out. When Amelia meets Charlie, a boy her age who is the son of a hotel employee, she quickly agrees to his plans of discovering old Tom's secrets. Even if Charlie does annoy her a bit. Together, they start to snoop around the hotel, tracking Tom's movements, which are strange and suspicious. The mystery deepens when a hotel guest checks in, oddly choosing a hotel that is still barely functional.

Despite receiving warnings from their parents and getting into ever-increasing trouble, Amelia and Charlie continue to sneak around the hotel, breaking into rooms and trailing their suspects. They know something is going on, they just don't know what. When the kids discover a set of shimmering, mesmerizing jewels in the hotel guest's room, they set off a chain of events that forces Tom to finally reveal to them the hotel's big secret. Then, the story that started as a mystery morphs into a science fiction book, as Amelia and Charlie discover that the truth is stranger than anything they could have imagined.

I started this book expecting a children's mystery, so the switch to pure sci-fi caught me off guard. However, having adjusted my expectations, I enjoyed the story. I think this is a great piece of science fiction for younger readers. The book is short, with quick chapters, and a rapidly moving plot that will keep the reader's attention engaged. Kids will relate to Amelia's struggles with moving to a new home and starting a new school. And most kids will immediately understand Amelia's fascination with the mysteries of her new home, and the way she immediately knows something is spooky about it. When the aliens start to pop up, the authors do a great job of grounding the unbelievable happenings in a weirdly compelling scientific framework, and helping readers to suspend belief. The story clearly is a set up for future books to come, answering just enough questions but leaving a hook of unresolved issues that leaves the reader wanting to know more. Overall, this reads like a classic science fiction tale (after the misleading mystery disguise at the beginning), and is a good start to a series. ( )

Because she’s been promised a puppy, Amelia is more open to her parents’ strange decision to become hotel owners, and move out to some tiny town by the seaside, leaving their jobs as astrophysicist and diplomat behind. But when they arrive the hotel is not only old, it’s positively creepy, and it comes with a grumpy old caretaker named Tom that gives Amelia the creeps. Charlie, the son of a hotel employee tells Amelia that he thinks Tom may be a pirate. But when start follow him around they discover he’s not nearly as creepy as what he has in his basement.

This is a very well written, well-illustrated, and well-designed first installment to a children’s science fiction series that opens the door to many potentially exciting adventures. ( )