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40 pp.
| Creston |
October, 2019 |
TradeISBN 978-1-939547-58-3$17.99
(2)
PS
This almost-wordless story of friendship and separation shows a small alien making its way to Earth in a spaceship that looks (and opens) like a pill capsule. The use of color conveys important meaning within the rounded, bubbly art. After landing on Earth, the alien encounters a friendly rabbit in a candy-colored landscape and then makes its way into town, where it is ignored by a throng of tall, oblivious adults, rendered in drab grays and browns. Eventually, the dejected alien meets a similarly sized child, who offers crayons and paper; through the act of making art, the two become fast friends. The alien turns out to be delightfully helpful, as it can retrieve lost paper airplanes and dropped ice cream with its handheld device. The device unfortunately then calls the alien back to its home planet, and the new friendship is tested by untold miles. At home, the other aliens, anxious to hear about the traveler's adventures, are tellingly rendered in the same drab lack of color as the adults on Earth. In a wistful, open-ended conclusion, the small alien finds the perfect way to send a message back to its new very-long-distance friend: the one-word grand gesture of a celestial "Hello."
Reviewer: Julie Roach
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
January, 2020