The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

I'll get to the book review in a second.
Right now, I'm really quite a lot more dumbfounded about some of the factoids that came on the PR type sheet I got with the book.

Did you know?

• Significantly more boys than girls declare themselves "nonreaders"
• Boys value reading as an activity LESS than girls do
• Boys read less fiction than girls
• Boys are more inclined to read graphic novels and comic books
• Boys have much less interest in leisure reading

I've had my issues with keeping my boys interested in the things they should be interested in and I say that statement only because my girls are not yet avid-reader age, so this doesn't apply to them. But, some of you may remember in another review that sometimes there appear to be some motivation problems.

And, as a bookworm myself, it's hard for me to understand why they aren't devouring books like I did when I was their ages. Then again, I didn't have dozens of 24-hour a day cartoon channels, and Wii, and Nintendo DS, or an iPod. I didn't have access to a zillion little implements meant to entertain me with no breaks, no shred of a possibility that I might become bored if left stagnant.

So my boys do seem to require books with action, or at the very least, they like stories about kids who are clever or funny.

Maximum Ride by James Patterson was the first review I ever did for Mother Talk. It got high marks from both me and my son. So, I had high expectations for The Dangerous Days of Daniel X going in.

Daniel X starts out promising enough, with action and intensity. I mean, the above average language and physical dexterity of the 3-year old Daniel is intriguing enough to grab the reader.
An alien praying mantis like creature called "The Prayer" arrives at Daniel's home looking for The List and subsequently murders Daniel's parents and his narrow escape leaves him with one solitary cause: to avenge their deaths.

Fast forward (with some jumping around for exposition's sake) to the teenage Daniel who is hunting down the aliens on the list one by one. His powers are explained in fairly short order, though not in such a way that the reader feels they can grasp or understand them fully, but the most interesting of his powers aside from turning himself into other things is his "creation" ability where he brings about life forms mimicking his parents and also a gang of friends.

Throughout, his solitary purpose in this offering of the entire story (it can be surmised that more volumes will be forthcoming) is hunting down #6 on The List, a very dangerous alien by the name of Ergent Seth.

Without spoiling any more of the plot, I did offer this to my 12-year old to read as well. His incredibly glib review of it was that is was "OK".

As for me, I thought Maximum Ride was far more creative and held my interest as an adult reader. I know it's written for a youth audience, but it seems to be written for no one any older than 10. Otherwise, I don't think it's meaty or compelling enough for a kid much older than that to stick with. I will suggest it to my 10-year old, mostly because he's really into aliens. He may give me something more enthusiastic than simply an "OK".

Other resources:
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X website
Daniel X on Wikipedia
Excerpt from the book (you can read the beginning here)