Paradise, Ohio

I Am Number Four

The American cover of I Am Number Four: Book 1
Author	Pittacus Lore, aka James Frey & Jobie Hughes
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Lorien Legacies
Genre	Young adult Science fiction
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	August 3, 2010
Pages	440
ISBN
Followed by	The Power of Six

I Am Number Four is a young adult science fiction novel by Pittacus Lore (the pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes) and the first book in the Lorien Legacies series. The book was published by HarperCollins on August 3, 2010, and spent seven successive weeks at #1 on the children's chapter of the New York Times bestseller list.

DreamWorks Pictures bought the rights to the film in June 2009; it was released on February 18, 2011 and was the first DreamWorks movie to be distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures.

The novel is the first of a seven-book series.

A prelude of the killing of one of the Garde children—No. 3—by Mogadorians. This story is about a 15-year-old boy named John Smith. He has been on the run from the age of 4, and he is from a planet called Lorien.

Most of the book is told in the first-person by Number Four, who takes the name John Smith. As the story begins, he and his guardian or Cepân, Henri, learns of the death of Number Three and move to Paradise, Ohio, assuming new identities. There, John befriends conspiracy theorist Sam Goode and "adopts" a dog identified by its name tag as "Bernie Kosar". He also meets and is attracted to a fellow student, Sarah Hart, who is working as a photographer. Sarah's ex-boyfriend, football player Mark James, is a bully who torments both John and Sam.

During the Halloween festival Sam mentions that he knows about Mogadorians from a magazine, They Walk Among Us, a revelation that alarms both John and Henri. Mark and his friends organize a nasty surprise during the haunted hayride: Sarah, John and Sam are left stranded in the woods, where Mark plans to beat John up. John uses his "legacies", which are akin to superpowers, to fend off his attackers and rescues Sarah. In the darkness Sarah does not see John use his legacies, and he quietly warns Mark not to talk (or to let his friends talk) about what happened.

Sarah and John's relationship develops. Henri continues training John to use his legacies, now with an increasing sense of urgency. Henri is unsettled, and tells John that it is not safe to stay. He is also concerned as John is late in developing his telekinesis, a power that he will need to fight the Mogadorians. Later, it is revealed that Sam has seen enough to arouse his suspicions, but John allays them by bluffingly 'admitting' to being an alien. He finds out more about the magazine Sam reads by borrowing a copy. Sam speaks of his belief that his father has been abducted by aliens.