Space Race by Sylvia Waugh Thomas Derwent(11) and his father Patrick Derwent(age not given) of Belthorp, England, Earth are really Tonitheen and Vateelin from the planet Ormingat. They have been on Earth for five years, and now it is time for them to return to Ormingat. On their way to their space ship, they run into trouble in the form of a truck. Mr. Derwent accidentally shrinks so that the truck does not kill him when it runs him over, and Thomas is separated from his father. Now he must figure out how to contact his father so that he will not be left behind when the space ship leaves for Ormingat.
On the front cover of this book(or at least the edition I am reading), a man and a boy are pictured holding hands. The boy looks around six or seven, and that is the way Thomas acts in this book. 11 year olds in real life who believe that they are aliens from outer space are not generally viewed as normal kids with active immaginations; they have problems. And in that vein, the people portrayed in this book seem overly simplistic and naive. However, the premise of this book, aliens kids in our midst being raised as us, is interesting.
Happy reading
