Tag Archives: aliens

Flotsam

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As we’ve discussed before, David Wisener’s work is nearly wordless and always carefully-plotted, mixing the familiar with the very strange. (Although it is very different, it reminds me of Shaun Tan’s excellent, wordless, graphic novel, The Arrival–which I look forward to introducing the boys to when they are bit older.)

Flotsam is the tale of an underwater camera that washes up on a beach with some very unusual pictures waiting to be developed. Among its other virtues, it is the perfect bedtime book for when you’ve lost your voice to a summer cold (assuming you’ve already explained the concept of “film” that needs to be developed during previous readings).

Author: David Wiesner
Illustrator: David Wiesner

Hush, Little Alien

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Hush, little alien,
don’t say a word,
Papa’s gonna catch
you a goonie bird.

If that goonie bird flies too far,
Papa’s gonna lasso you a shooting star.

If that shooting star’s too hot,
Papa’s gonna
find you an astronaut!

When my oldest was two, he started singing this song. I thought he was making it up as he went along and was absolutely amazed.  Finally I caught on that he had heard it at school, started searching, and found the song has come from this really fun variation on “Hush, Little Baby.”  (Of course, I still think my boy hung the moon.)

Caveat:  The astronaut Papa finds fights back (with his fist), so the aliens move on to something else.  I always just shook my fist, added the line “Put me down, please!” and moved right along, but if you are concerned about any kind of physical confrontation, you may want to skip this one.

Author:  Daniel Kirk
Illustrator:  Daniel Kirk

Fortunately, the Milk

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A perfect tall tale of daring and dairy.  This book may (almost literally) have everything.  Among other things, there are aliens, dads, dinosaurs, flying saucers, hot air balloons, pirates, ponies, piranhas, space time paradoxes, time machines, vampires, volcanoes, and (fortunately) the milk.  An effortless read aloud and an absolute hoot.

Author:  Neil Gaiman
Illustrator:  Skottie Young