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The book I Am Number Four starts off with a planet named Lorien being invaded by Mogadorians from the planet Mogadore. During the invasion everyone on the planet is slaughtered and the only survivors are 9 children and 9 guardians in orbit.

Those 9 kids have Legacies which are powers that develop at the age of 17, and the purpose of sending them off is for them to save their species. They escape to Earth but the Mogadorians follow them trying to eliminate the rest of the survivors. The kids are paired up with a guardian and spread throughout Earth. The reason they separate is because of a charm that was placed on the kids before they left Lorien. This charm protects them from harm, but the only way they can be killed is in order. Once all of the kids are are brought together, the charm breaks but they become stronger. Some time passes and the first 3 kids are killed, and the Mogadorians focus their attention on fourth kid.

The story is based on his point of view. He moves all around the world with his guardian. They never go back to the same place twice or stay there too long. As they go to place to place, they change their identities to prevent them from being tracked. They eventually end up in Ohio where most of the story occurs. The guardian’s name is Henry and the 4th kid’s name is John. At this time he is about 17 years old and is going to High School. On his first day he befriends a kid named Sam and a girl named Sarah. He also develops his first Legacy, which gives him the gift of shining bright lights from both of his palms and of becoming fireproof. As he continues to go to school, he begins to like Sarah more and her ex-boyfriend, Mark, starts to become jealous and causes problems with John.

During the school Halloween event, Mark tries to beat up John up but it ultimately backfires and Mark stops causing problems with him anymore. During all that, Henry finds out that an alien conspiracy theorist knows about the invasion of Lorien and he goes to investigate. John returns home to see that Henry isn’t there, he panics and awakens his telekinesis. He then ropes Sam into his problems and they drive to rescue Henry. John finds Henry chained up and uses his newfound powers to free him. After that, things go back to normal except that Henry is training John harder then ever. Mark invites John and Sarah to his house for a party, and during the party there is a fire. Everyone evacuates outside except Sarah and John goes into the house to rescue her. He grabs her and then jumps out of the house on the second floor. This makes it on the news and attracts the Mogadorians to John’s location. They track him to the school and the only people who are there are John, Sam, Sarah, Henry, and Mark. John and Sarah are being chased by two Mogadorians, but are saved when number 6 shows up. John and Six are surrounded by 6 Mogadorians, yet they still manage to win. Although they won Henry had died and everyone is bruised and very weak. The story end with John and Six going to find other Legacies. This story did a good job explaining the origin of the characters and it did a good job demonstrating some of the high school drama. The jealousy and the bullying illustrates what it can be like in high school. The story also has flashbacks of John’s time on Lorien. It showed how similar and how different the culture is from Earth.

The story explained that Lorien was close to dying as well, and it faced all of the problems that Earth is facing right now. Lorien also had global warming, and nuclear waste problems as well. By the time people had tried to fix their mistakes, it was already too late. Their differences was in government, equality, global peace, and in long lasting relationships. On Earth there are always wars going on, people fighting for equality, some corrupt governments, and there is a high divorce rate. Even with all the problems going on, there is still time to fix the problems. The book had an interesting beginning with an intriguing ending. The middle was a little slow but it was important to how the story ended. I would rate this book an 8.75 out of 10.

Check out I am Number Four at the Newport Beach Public Library.