SOLVED. Children's or possibly YA SciFi book about alien family moving to earth? [s]

[Angela]

An alien family moves to Earth and has to disguise themselves and live among humans, possibly so the father can work on some sort of scientific study? The main character was the teenage (?) daughter of the alien family. I remember the father being very strict, and I think that was a point of conflict between him and the main character.

Anyway, the aliens end up befriending an Earthling family, but they have to keep their real identities a secret. This is tricky because the aliens breathe helium instead of oxygen. I have a distinct memory of a scene where the daughter (?) of the human family walks in on the main character while she's breathing helium out of a balloon, and she has to quickly make up an excuse. I also remember that the aliens, er, didn't have any reproductive organs in their human disguises, so they basically had a Barbie doll's anatomy.

I think the story ends with the alien family deciding to stay on Earth, and that there was possibly a romance developing between the alien father and the Earthling mother?

I would have read this in the early 2000's. I'm thinking it may have been published in the 80's or 90's.

If you have any ideas, I'd really appreciate it! :) This has been bugging me for years.

[Angela]

I think I may have found it! Stepsister from Planet Weird by Francess Lin Lantz. I'll see if I can get ahold of a copy and confirm.

[Angela]

The book arrived today, and it looks familiar already! I'm cautiously optimistic. :) Will report back soon!

[Angela]

This is it! I got to the scene with the helium balloon, and it was exactly as I remembered it. :)

Turned out I was misremembering a few details. The reason they move to Earth is because the father is fascinated by humans after seeing Earth TV shows and wants to live among them, not because of an assignment. And he's not strict at all, but he and his daughter do butt heads over whether to return to their home planet (He wants to stay on Earth, she wants to go home). Plus, the perspective alternates between the Earth girl and the alien girl, which was something else I'd forgotten.

But yeah, mark this one down as solved! :)

[Ket]

I'm glad you found it! Love that it was the novelization of a DCOM (or that the DCOM was based on it). Nostalgia!

[Angela]

Thanks! One of my life's great mysteries has been solved, haha! I've never seen the movie, but reading the book makes me think a lot of scenes would be hilarious to watch on screen. :)