Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth

About 50.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, including a standard allowance for page turns, pictures and participation, from a word count of 5,433. Stopping for a longer conversation on every page will add more time.

Ages 6-8 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 3 sentences a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.

Yes - this is one of the few that is still fine on the fortieth reading, which is why it scores 5 out of 5 with us.

It can. It scores 5 out of 5 with us for holding up to repeat reading, and children tend to learn by heart the books they ask for most, even without a strong refrain.

Not yet. At vocabulary level 2 out of 5 and 3 sentences a page, it is a read-aloud book rather than a first solo read. Read it to them now, and hand it over in a year or two.

Yes, it belongs to the Hilo series. It stands on its own, so you can start here without reading the others in order, then move to the rest if it lands.

We tag it with comics, science fiction, friendship, robots and superpowers. Those are the threads that actually run through the book, not just the ones on the cover, which is how it earns its place on our themed lists rather than a keyword match.