MotherTalk Book Review: The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Girl Child? Reads absolutely everything she can get her hands on. She reads comic books, she reads novels, she reads the backs of cereal boxes. Every single street sign from here to Eastern North Carolina she has, at some point, read aloud to me.

Boy Child? Not so much.

He struggled with reading at first, but then when he finally got it? He found it boring. Really the only thing he liked to read was cookbooks. Because he likes to cook and also he likes to eat.

Then he became interested in ghost stories. The more gory and bloody the better.

So when I got an opportunity to review The Dangerous Days of Daniel X? I said okay. And then I got the book and the back cover reads:

"They killed my mother and father- and I will hunt them to the ends of the earth"

Well, it sounded like a good book to read with a boy who likes to plot revenge strategies involving angry monkeys trapped in boxes.

And? I was right.

Here's a summary of the plot, from Amazon.
The greatest superpower of all isn't to be part spider, part man, or to cast magic spells--the greatest power is the power to create.
Daniel X has that power.


Daniel's secret abilities -- like being able to manipulate objects and animals with his mind or to recreate himself in any shape he chooses -- have helped him survive. But Daniel doesn't have a normal life. He is the protector of the earth, the Alien Hunter, with a mission beyond what anyone's imagining.


From the day that his parents were brutally murdered before of his very eyes, Daniel has used his unique gifts to hunt down their assassin. Finally, with the help of The List, bequeathed to him in his parents' dying breath, he is closing in on the killer.


Now, on his own, he vows to take on his father's mission--and to take vengeance in the process.


The author is James Patterson, who also wrote the Maximum Ride book I reviewed a while back. The main character in the book, Daniel, is a likable fellow, and the book is written from his point of view. I enjoyed this book more than the Maximum Ride book. It was easier to get lost in this book...I wasn't constantly reminded that I was reading a story by the characters in the book.

I read parts of this book out loud nightly to Boy Child (and Girl Child) and it's for sure a winner. It has action, adventure, aliens, and best of all? Fast-paced action and chapters short enough to keep their attention and long enough to tell a great story. Boy and Girl Child are ten and I felt it was just right for them. It probably isn't a book I would pick for myself, but for my children? Definitely. And MOST definitely for a "reluctant reader" like my Boy Child.

See what other mom's are saying at MotherTalk.