Aliens! (And Other Strange Creatures)

While they wait to go back into the water, Lolly, Sam, and Spider pass the time by telling stories to each other. One story is so vividly told, the monster seems to come alive! The deadpan language is very humorous, and is complemented by simple line-and-wash illustrations.

Minnie and Moo are surprised by a one-eyed, package-delivering, potatolike alien named Spud, who crash-lands his UPS (“Universal Package Service”) spaceship in their pasture. He needs another ship and five gallons of “space fuel” to deliver a tube of Anti-Bump Cream to prevent planets from bumping into one another-and he has 30 minutes to get the job done. Can Minnie and Moo help Spud build a new spaceship in time to save the universe?

When a spaceship crashes nearby, Possum goes to explore and discovers Alien, a cautious creature in a nicely rounded space suit, who overcomes his initial suspicions to become Possum’s pal. A springy pace, lively dialogue, and Alien’s silly sound effects make this an ideal read-aloud.

Something stunning happened in an isolated desert town in 1947 that made Roswell, New Mexico, famous. Fact and fiction about the space ship and alien sightings in Roswell are presented and put into a broader historical context. Sketches and open format help create a not-too-serious tone for this appealing book.

Fred, Sam, and Joe – the boys who travel by The Book, become known as “Brave Fred, Berserk Sam, and Magic Joe” when they travel back in time to meet Leif Eriksson and his Vikings. The boys seem as much like aliens to the Vikings as the ancient runes do to them; that is, until they write their own saga! Readers will learn a little along the way as they laugh out loud with this book from The Time Warp Trio series.

Nergal and the other first grade Martians from Ms. Vortex’s pod participate in a running competition during health week. Nergal is nervous; he’s not a good runner. But he learns about healthy eating and that doing one’s Martian best is more important than winning. Zany illustrations and text convey a down to earth message in this book from the First Graders from Mars series.

How would you get to Mars? What would you find once you’re there? In understandable and informative text, this book presents a journey to the Red Planet. Line and wash illustrations and a few photographs help readers imagine the trip.

What could it be? This fun book uses die-cuts to focus the viewers’ eye on an extremely small section of a full-color photograph. Readers will be surprised as they turn the pages to discover what looked strange up close is really something familiar.

Enter a world inhabited by the “slithy tove” and other unique beings and wonder, what exactly is the Jabberwock any ways? A new generation can decide for themselves in this handsome and not too scary version of Lewis Carroll’s offbeat, dreamy, imaginary world.

Human kids will understand where little green, freckle-faced Henry P. Baloney is coming from. He’s late again, and is sure to serve detention forever if he can’t come up with a good excuse for his teacher as to why he’s late again. Words Henry uses sound truly alien, but there’s enough context to figure out their meaning — and a funny surprise waiting at book’s end.