8 Middle-Grade and Young-Adult Alien Books for Fans of Elio

After a trip to the space simulator at the local Challenger Center, a group of students were chosen by the enigmatic Commander Zota for a very special mission through time and space. Their latest mission has them returning to the future, where they'll work aboard the International Space Station Complex. They'll float without gravity, watch the Earth from afar, and defend humanity against an invading alien species!

Zara Cole has carved out a meager existence as a petty thief in New Detroit after her family left the Earth behind for a new life on Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell, but when she commits a crime and risks imprisonment, she goes on the run. She finds an escape through the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore space beyond humanity's reach. Fleeing Earth, however, means a whole new life of dangers and darkness.

For his entire life, Barbary had heard stories about an alien ship moving throughout the solar system and conducting research on the great unknown. And then the space transport Outrigger docked on research station Einstein. Some believed the vessel was drifting aimlessly through the cosmos while others theorized that it was under the control of an unknown force. Either way, it was up to a crack team of scientists to figure it out. They weren't prepared, however, for Barbary and her pet cat smuggling themselves on board…

For the past hundred years, Earth has lived a peaceful existence as a colony of an alien race. But now, as the alien-run government navigates peace talks with the human terrorist group Sapience, that peace looks set to fall to pieces. Donovan, a member of security forces, has been ordered to leave Earth. He knows that this will make the planet vulnerable to takeover from enemy forces, and he knows that Sapience could be the only way to prevent all-out war. To save mankind, he may need to make the ultimate sacrifice.

No list of the greatest children’s novels of all time is complete without the legendary A Wrinkle in Time. Meg Murry, her brilliant younger brother Charles Wallace, and her mother are reeling from the disappearance of her father, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg, Charles, and their friend Calvin away to an entirely new interdimensional space where one can leap across space and time in the blink of an eye. Mr. Murry is being held captive by dark forces intent on taking over the entire universe, and it's up to Meg to find a way to save him and their entire existence.

The Animorphs series is one of the true icons of '90s children’s fiction. The long-running series inspired a TV show, video games, and a generation of kids with its dystopian sci-fi tale of a secret war and alien invasion. Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco are perfectly normal kids when they see a strange light in the sky one fateful night. An alien informs them that the planet has been infiltrated by the Yeerks, parasitic aliens who take over other bodies by crawling into their brain. It's up to the kids to stop the war, and they have new abilities to help them: They become Animorphs, shapeshifters who can transform into any animal they touch. 

Viv Harlow plans to relax, hang out with her friends, and enjoy their time together before they go their separate ways at different high schools. She has no desire to go with her mother to work at her office, even if she is the Director of the infamous Area 51. But when an alarm sounds beneath the secret base and a whole race of aliens escape, Viv is forced to become a hero. Alongside her friends Charlotte, Ray and Elijah, they become interns to a grand mission to defend Area 51, protect an adorable alien baby, and maybe just save the world while they're at it.

Liam has always felt out of place. He's only 12 years old but he looks way older. Everyone views him as an adult, which can sometimes be fun, like when he convinces a car dealer to let him take a Porsche out on a test drive. Mostly, however, he's tired and sad. Things take a strange turn when he cons way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space by pretending to be an adult chaperone. Now, Liam and his new friends are 239,000 miles away from home, and space is full of things that he could never see or believe on Earth.