Sheep in Space: Sheep Blast Off by Nancy Shaw

Sheep see a shape in the mist by a tree.
Something has landed. What can it be?

Five befuddled sheep just have to investigate the strange object which has descended into their grazing grounds. Standing piggyback (or, um, sheep-a-back) to peer through the portholes and hauling down the EXIT door, the woolly ones gawk and then clamber inside the bright yellow space ship with ALFALFA (spelled backwards) stenciled on the side.

Once inside the cramped quarters, the inquisitive sheep start pulling levers, pressing buttons, and turning knobs right and left, to the consternation of a bug-eyed greenish alien seen peeping from a passageway. Suddenly, unforeseen consequences follow:

They grab a knob. It seals a door.
Lights come on. Engines roar.

The sheep perform their tasks rather well considering their amateur astronaut status, but when they tinker with the controls, things go wrong fast.

Lights flash. Computers beep.
Blaring sirens scare the sheep.

Alien to the rescue! The hidden extraterrestrial puts the sheep into sweet slumber with his ray gun and, taking the controls, brings the spaceship back to its dock among the daisies. Reunited with their pilot, the team of exploring aliens gently carry the sheep asleep, each wrapped in a fuzzy pink blanket, to their place under a tree, return to their craft, and lift off in a burst of flame as the astonished sheep wake and watch.

Home at last.
Rocket sheep have had a blast!

Nancy Shaw's latest sheep saga, Sheep Blast Off!, has the same ewe-nique appeal as her much-loved earlier stories, Sheep in a Jeep, Sheep Take a Hike, Sheep in a Shop and Sheep on a Ship (Sandpiper Houghton Mifflin Books). Margot Apple's soft colored pencil illustrations and Shaw's simple rhyming text make these great books for preschoolers and for beginning readers alike.