First Day on Earthby Cecil Castellucci

"We are specks. Pieces of dust in this universe. Big nothings."I know what I am."Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Yet loving the world -- or, at least, an idea of the world.Then he meets Hooper. Who says he's from another planet. And may be going home very soon. (goodreads.com)

One week from tomorrow, I will be joining a handful of other Montreal Book Bloggers for breakfast with Cecil Castellucci. It's going to be a sort of book club, type event, hosted by Scholastic Canada and I am so excited to be included on the guest list. Cecil is a Montreal author and has a writing style that really clicks with me. I will of course blog about next week's event and let you know more about how I came to discover Cecil's books!Scholastic has made sure those of us who will be attending received a copy of Cecil Castellucci's newest novel - First Day on Earth. For some reason I thought this book was going to be Middle Grade, I guess because it's short (150 pages) and I don't know... something in my brain was stuck on that.This book is definitely not MG at all. I was actually shocked from the first page by the language used in the books. This shock was ONLY because my head said "MG" while the words my eyes were seeing clearly said "YA, yo!" As I turned each page and read this story from the YA point of view, I wasn't shocked anymore. I was content. The dialogue and language in this book is very real. There are swear words and slang for body parts and it's like reading something that was actually transcribed from a real teenage conversation.The thing I loved most about this book was the short chapters. Some chapters were only one sentence. I LOVED that. I love books like that. Something about it just connects with me so deeply. It's dark and it's raw and it's just so poignant. Those chapters, to me, were the most passionate. They made me think of the Ellen Hopkins novel I read late in the summer. They are poetic and strong.I like the element of Science Fiction that's mixed into this novel. Without it, First Day on Earth would just be a regular ol' contemporary novel (though, one I would have enjoyed even though I am not a huge contemp fan). The alien theme doesn't over power the story or Mal's character, even though this is pretty much what the book is about. The Sci-Fi element is there as a sort of companion to the contemporary element. There's a balance that I found very easy to read.Mal's friends are also well described so they feel like solid characters more than just secondary ones. You can truly understand their motivation throughout their actions. I liked them a whole bunch.I did have to re-read the last chapter a few times in order to understand what it meant. This isn't a bad thing about the book, this is me just wanting to make sure I was understanding it properly. I think I'm interpreting it correctly, but I could be wrong. I am looking forward to discussing this with the others next Sunday! I feel a little silly not getting it the first read and concerned I didn't get it after the third. But then again, I'm cute, not smart. hehThis is the first and only book I have ever received from Scholastic Canada and I am very pleased that it was such a fantastic one. So, thank you very, very much!