We Are Not Alone
by Katryn Bury
Middle School    Harper/HarperCollins    320 pp.
10/24    9780063337411    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063337435    $9.99

As Sam Kepler Greyson heads back to school for the first time after going through chemo, he’s still worried about his illness—now in remission—and processing the loss of his best friend, Oscar, who died from brain cancer. He doesn’t expect things to get better when he’s paired with Cat Pellegrini for their eighth-grade California history project, especially when Cat’s friends start speculating that he lied about being sick for attention. Sam becomes even more determined not to talk about his cancer—to anyone, including his moms—even when he starts having concerning symptoms. But Cat turns out to be the same kind of nerdy as Sam, and they connect over a favorite TV show and a passion for UFOs. With Cat’s help, Sam continues the work he’d begun studying extraterrestrials with Oscar, and together they follow clues to locate the author of a mysterious article on the subject. When a health crisis puts his friendship with Cat at risk, Sam has to deal with things he’d rather avoid. The book deals honestly with conflicting emotions of some cancer survivors (including Bury, as an author’s note explains) without becoming maudlin, with Sam’s wry sense of humor at the core. The cancer and UFO plot threads interweave elegantly, and the book offers possibilities but no easy answers.

From the ">January/February 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.