Rebecca Stead’s The Experiment is a dystopian book that’s not dismal; instead, it is a coming-of-age story in which the parents learn as much as their tween kids. It’s a middle grade novel that, like all enduring children’s literature, reverberates beyond childhood.
Nathan is the kind of sixth-grade boy who anyone (okay, especially a middle school teacher like me) would love to have a conversation with over a double scoop at Baskin Robbins. He might tell you about “altruism – did you know that ants can make bridges with nothing but their bodies?” And he would mention his friend Victor more than a few times – Victor who shares a passion for Calvin and Hobbes, texts things like “Sleepover Saturday? Dad says Mexican lasagna,” and reassures Nathan in a conversation about E.T. (“Gram loves that movie, it’s in her top three”) that “you’re not going anywhere without my permission. Definitely not into space.”
What Nathan wouldn’t tell you while scooping up a bite of butter pecan, though, is that his mom asks about the exact amount of lasagna he eats, makes him brush his teeth with special pink toothpaste, and writes down his life details in a series of notebooks. Oh, and she never plans a vacation, or really does anything else, unless it’s sanctioned by the authorities on the Wagon – a spaceship where Nathan’s parents grew up that happens to be docked somewhere on the East Coast.
Such meticulousness stems from Nathan and his parents trying to keep their human cover through years of alien living. I would tell you more, but the Wagon might summon me for questioning.
I appreciated The Experiment’s sweet, quirky characters, not only Nathan and Victor, fast friends since third grade, but also Nathan’s long-distance friend Izzy and other wise twelve-year-old souls. The plot is compelling enough that on winter break I carried the hardback on a family zoo visit, in hopes of reading a few pages between meerkat sightings.
Weeks on, The Experiment’s relationships have stayed with me. I’ve recalled with sympathy the parents trying to protect their son the best way they know how, with the help of a preternaturally observant cat, Toto. I’ve remembered how Victor and his grandmother make Nathan feel normal with pizza and family game nights. I’ve even found a soft spot for the villain after hearing her backstory moments before the novel closes.
It turns out that The Experiment is not only about aliens passing as humans but also about belonging. How we search to connect, on spaceships or in comic books. How we find belonging, with cats or tigers or best friends whose grandmas keep ’80s movies on replay. How we hold it and spread it to those we love.
