Alien Stranger! E. T. The Extraterrestrial by Melissa Mathison

It was the week before Halloween. Elliott wanted to play with his brother Michael, but he said "NO."

I can fight goblins, too!" said Elliott

"Just go get the pizza," said Michael.

Elliot trudges out to pay for their pizza delivery, feeling a bit sad that his brother no longer wants to play with him. But when he hears a noise and spots some strange tracks, he forgets all about Michael and follows the odd footprints into their dark shed.

It definitely wasn't a coyote!

But when Elliott tries to convince his family that there's something or someone really weird out there, Michael is only interested in the pizza.

When Elliott goes out to look for the strange goblin by day, he sees uniformed people with odd equipment searching the area. Wanting to help the strange visitor, Elliott leaves a trail of candy to try to attract the little stranger to the house. And when he and sister find the alien being snacking in their house, they disguise him as a treat-or-treater and sneak him into the woods, where he tells them he's going to "call home." And what the two see is a Halloween night Elliott will never forget.

If trick-or-treat excursions aren't exciting enough, Melissa Mathison's picture book version E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The Classic Illustrated Storybook (Pop Classics)(Quirk Books, 2019) gives young readers a a quick preview of the blockbuster movie, E.T. But you'll need an alien costume and perhaps a hankie for the sweet and sad parts, just right for the scary season. And don't forget the Reese's Pieces!

Um + Gurm =Threep Frints: Best Frints at Skrool by Antoinette Portis

On planet Boborp, childrinx go to skrool.

... to listen when their skreecher spleeks...
... and to keep their tentacles to themselves.

Sometimes childrinx make new frints.

Yelfred and Omek were best frints at skrool, until... one recess in which Yelfred makes a new best frint--Q-B.

Q-B is COOL.

And poor Omek is out in the COLD, frintship wise. Yelfred and Q.B. split their yunches with each other. Omek sadly eats alone.

Yelfred and Q-B are playing the old "gurm's company, threep's a crowd" game.

Other stroodents begin to share too much of their yunches with each other. Spewd flies through the air and hits some childrinx in their faces. It's a . . .

... SPEWD FLIGHT!!!

The Boborpian yunch ladies are even less harpy than usual....! And the Boborpian skrool skreechers are not pleased with their stroodents.

Q-B and Yelfred get a long time-out by the Quiet Wall. And Q-B, Omek and Yelfred realize that they didn't get much of a yunch.

By the time skrool is out, all threep of them are hungry. Starping, actually. It's time to share some spewd the frintly way, as the threep new frints head over to Yelfred's house for some after-skrool smacks.

And all's well that ends well in a fun match of eye-ball in the peedle patch between the threep pals, in Antoinette Portis' latest, Best Frints at Skrool (Roaring Brook Press, 2018), the sequel to her first book in series, Best Frints in the Whole Universe. All kids in the primary grades will love artist Antoinette Portis' quirky alien kids, worm sandwiches and all, and second and third graders, who've likely developed a taste for wordplay, will delight in author Portis' Boborpian lingo, especially "skreecher" for "teacher" and "spewd" for "food." Funny endpapers offer more vocabulary lessons in how to spleek Boborpian--algazator (as in Later, 'zator!) bloox (books) and the Sturp signs (Whatever you're doing, don't do it anymore!) and how to count from um to gazango (one to ten) in Boborpian.

This blook is lotz of phun for primary skroodents!

Abducted by Aliens! Bad Guys (Alien VS Bad Guys) by Aaron Blabey

WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!

How? HE'S AN ALIEN!

Marmalade ISN'T a mad scientist who tried to destroy the world. He's an enormous hostile alien life-form....

And we're trapped inside its space station on the moon WITHOUT A ROCKET.

Yes, the Bad Guys gang are not in the best of positions, vis a vis, er, staying alive! Actually, they're somewhere in outer space in a capsule....

Are they doomed?

But little Legs has a plan. There is an escape pod, and all he has to do is decipher a bunch of unknown languages, punch in the right coordinates, and ....

FIGURE IT OUT!

But along the way they have to deal with the deadly ...

KDJFLOERHGCOINWERUHCGLEIRWFHEKLWJFHXALHW?!

But then little Legs pulls it off! He figures out the code to the escape pod and they blast off back to earth. But things on earth don't look right. Where are they?

OOPS. Could Legs have set the correct coordinates for Earth, but... sent them back to

65 MILLION BC?

It's a total celebration of the joy of reading (and of super silliness) in Aaron Blabey's The Bad Guys in Alien vs Bad Guys (The Bad Guys 6), the latest installment in the ditsy, screwy, and altogether ludicrous adventures in the author's goofy series. Not since the first Captain Underpants books have beginning chapter readers had such an occasion for the appreciation of the absurd, with this series of graphic novels illustrated by the author. Aaron Blabey is also the author-illustrator of the wonderfully zany picture book series which begins with Pig the Pug (see reviews here).

The Stranger Among Us! E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by Melissa Mathison

It was the week of Halloween.

Elliott wants to play fighting goblins with his brother, but Michael is not interested. So when Elliott hears a strange noise outside, he decides to do his own goblin hunting solo.

Following some very odd footprints, clearly not made by a coyote, he comes upon a creature that looks like a goblin.

It's definitely not a coyote! Elliot thinks.

But Michael and Mom put Elliott's description down to a pre-Halloween imagination. Still, the next day Elliott spots some strangers with odd equipment searching in the woods nearby, and he guesses that they are looking for that goblin he saw.

Elliot had to find the goblin first!

So Elliott leaves a strategic trail of candies from the edge of the woods to their shed and to his room. And the goblin shows at in his house. He looks friendly, so Elliott introduces him to Michael and his sister Gertie. Michael is instantly intrigued, but Gertie has one objection.

"I don't like his feet!"

Still the kids believe that their strange three-toed visitor is a stranded alien, and they all pitch in to help him get home. They show the visitor where they are on Michael's globe, and when the extra-terrestrial spots their phone, he knows what he must do to find his way home.

"Phone home!" he says.

Luckily, it is soon Halloween, when their alien looks like just another trick-or-treater, and the costumed kids help their new friend find his way back home with the help of their suddenly airborne bikes, in a picture book adaptation of the 1982 classic film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The Classic Illustrated Storybook (Pop Classics) (Quirk Books, 2017). For youngsters who have not seen the famous film, this version, illustrated in simple cartoon style by Kim Smith, is not a substitute, but a good introduction of the movie, stressing the kindness of the kids and E.T., the not-so-scary alien invader. With its theme of the kindness of strangers, this story is a great one to open the emotions and imagination of young readers.

For more about this film classic, share this on with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial from Concept to Classic: The Illustrated Story of the Film and the Filmmakers, 30th Anniversary Edition (Pictorial Moviebook).

SPLOINK! Peanut Butter and Jelly Aliens--A Zombie Culinary Tale by Joe McGee

QUIRKVILLE WAS A QUIET LITTLE TOWN, THE KIND OF PLACE WHERE THE PEOPLE AND ZOMBIES LIVED IN PEACE.

It wasn't always so. When the Zombies first invaded Quirkville, they shambled through the heretofore quiet streets, arms stretched before them--in search of (YIKES!) brains. But one young zombie--Reginald--was a more adventurous eater, one who actually craved exotic food, namely Abigail Zink's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and soon all the zombie invaders turn into PB and J fanciers. Now at lunchtime the busy streets of Quirkville are filled with various people and zombies, all happily in search of that classic sandwich.

But now there are new invaders in Quirkville, a small squadron of space aliens equipped with blasters, and all are clearly looking for lunch in all the wrong places!

But what?

"PIZZA?" SAID REGINALD, OFFERING THE ALIEN A TASTE OF HIS SLICE.

HIS ANTENNAE QUIVERED AND HIS TENTACLES SHOOK. HE DIDN'T LOOK HAPPY!

BRAZZAT! SPLAT!

Firing their blasters, the aliens storm through the town. At the Downtown Grill Greta hastens to flip grilled cheese sandwiches for them, but the aliens fire back with cosmic grape jelly. Icky-sticky!

SPLOINK! SPLOINK! they demand! What can they want!

It's Abigail and Reginald to the rescue, as they figure out that the aliens are there to find the missing ingredients they need to go with their cosmic grape jelly, in Joe McGee's latest, Peanut Butter & Jelly Aliens: A Zombie Culinary Tale (Abrams Books, 2017). Humans and zombies UNITE in serving up the necessities for Quirkville's signature sandwich at the newly christened SPLOINK CAFE, and again all is well in Quirkville.

It's a silly story, as befits one with kids, zombies, aliens, and sticky sandwiches, in this sequel to McGee's 2015 hit, Peanut Butter & Brains: A Zombie Culinary Tale (review here). As in the first book, author McGee gets a major culinary and artistic assist from illustrator Charles Santoso, whose comic drawings offer more fun with food for the primary reader. Kids who favor fantasy stories about aliens and zombies may want to get their sticky PB and J fingers on this one.

From the Secret Files! The X Files--Earth Children Are Weird by Chris Carter and Jason Rekulak

"The alien spaceship vanished into the sky and it was never seen again. THE END"

Dana closed her book.

"That was really scary, Dana," said Fox. "Maybe we should sleep inside the house."

"Don't be silly, Fox," said Dana. You know aliens are not real!"

Dana and Fox are camping out in a tent in their backyard. Fox clutches his flashlight and reminds Dana that, with billions of planets in the universe, there are sure to be curious aliens willing to spy on earth creatures.

"Here we go again...!" says Dana with a smirk.

But just then something happens. What's that bright light? Isn't that what aliens do when they land their ships?

FLASH!

Dana points out that the flash is their porch light being turned on by their parents inside, as they come out on the porch to remind them to turn off the flashlights and go to sleep.

"Time for bed!"

But with the porch light off again, Fox spots a strange and spooky shadow. Could that be an alien?

But no, it's just their dog, Buster, looking for a hug. Okay, but what's that giant footprint Fox sees?

Dana points out that it's the site for their new swimming pool, just begun the day before.

Suddenly they hear an alien noise:

Hooo-Squee-HOOO!

It's just an owl. And that squeaky noise? Is it aliens planning an attack? Dana drags Fox out of the tent to investigate. No, it's the swing, moving in the breeze.

"I guess I do have a really wild imagination," admits Fox.

Dana readily agrees as the two head back to their tent.

"Did you leave the tent unzipped?" Fox wonders.

"No," says Dana. "Did you?"

Those couldn't be green aliens inside their tent, eating their popcorn, could it?

They'll never know (or will they?), in Chris Carter and Jason Rekulak's The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird: A Picture Book (Pop Classics) (Quirk Books, 2017), as Dana and Fox dash inside to the safety of their own beds. Their parents give each other a knowing look and then exchange a few whispered words...

"//%#@**//!," says Dad. "//Squee HOOO!//" snickers Mom. "??OIVAIUYI!//" woofs Buster.

The lurking alien spaceship in the sky might be a hint that perhaps Fox's fears aren't too, er, far out, in Carter and Rekulak's rebooting of the well-known TV show's premise. It's still a wacky but promising plotline for early elementary readers (who may sometimes wonder what planet their own family members are from,) and the authors, helped by the cartooning skills of artist Kim Smith, manage enough sight gag clues to keep readers wondering right to the last page. For TV nostalgics, Publishers Weekly points out the genesis of this picture book series, saying, "In this picture book riff on The X-Files, Fox and Dana are best buddies having a backyard campout, fulfilling the same roles they did in the cult TV series."

The Great Prehistoric Panty Raid! Aliens Love Dinopants by Claire Freedman

A BAND OF PANTS-MAD ALIENS
ZOOMED DOWN HERE, WHEN... SURPRISE!
BRIGHT LIGHTS HIT THEIR SPACESHIP--BANG!
AND HURLED THEM FROM THE SKIES.

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE!

No, not the asteroid that supposedly led to the demise of the dinosaurs. Here's the true story of how it went down.

The alien spaceship's pants-tracker beeps boisterously. The aliens hone in on the undies signal, which leads them to land near a jungle redoubt.

"WOW! WE MUST BE CLOSE," THEY CRIED.
"LET'S TAKE A PEEK INSIDE!"

And inside that hidden cache, the aliens discover a treasure trove of --

BOOTY FOR THEIR BOOTIES!

A HAUL FOR THEIR HEINIES!

Inside they uncover underwear--skivvies and shorts, boxers and briefs and bloomers and bikinis and BVDs. The pants-mad aliens have a pantie party, There are dozens of drawers for every duff!

But the drawers-hoarding dinosaurs are furious at the looting of their derriere-wear! This means WAR! It's the cosmic Cretaceous clash for keister coverings, and the battle of the bottoms is fearful, until one alien warrior proposes a peace plan:

WE'LL LAUNCH YOU INTO SPACE!
"WE'LL SEND YOU TO THE PLANET ZOOM,
A MOST PANT-TASTIC PLACE.

And so, according to Claire Freedman's Aliens Love Dinopants, (The Underpants Books) (Aladdin Books, 2015)...

Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away,
Earth's top-drawered dinosaurs are still at play.

In this most recent of her undies series, Freedman's merry rhyming quatrains are back to tell us what really happened to the dinosaurs, a happy ending to the Great Underwear War. Nobody loves tails, er, tales of bottoms and briefs more than young readers of the primary grade persuasion, and fans of this series will definitely sit still for a new installment of The Underpants Books. Artist Ben Cort is in top form on this one with his signature comic characters undertaking all sorts of adventures in their never-ending search for the perfect pair of knickers. For this book Cort even provides delightful, er, end-papers showing a colorful collection of backside couture. As the Bard said it so memorably, "All's well that ends well."

Enjoy more knickers snickers from Freedman and Cort here.

Show Me The Way To Go Home! I'm An Alien (And I Want to Go Home) by Jo Franklin

My incredibly annoying older sister, Jessie, has a Random Mood Generator. Her favorite tracks are Psycho, Bossy, and Mega Mean.

Today I was still eating when Jessie came in to annoy me. "What is it with you and those freaky long legs, Beanpole?" Jessie said, waving her hair straightener in my face.

"Wanna know the family secret?" she said. "The one about you?

You aren't really my brother," she growled.

"You're an alien, abandoned on Earth by your alien parents. Why don't you take your alien legs and go back where you came from?"

Daniel Kendal, a.k.a., Bean for Beanpole, is the world's tallest kid, way taller than even his average-sized dad, and the more he thinks about it, the more he begins to believe Jessie is right. Everyone else in his family is average-sized and has blue eyes and blond hair, except his dad, who has blue eyes and used to have blond hair--back when he had hair.

So when Bean finds no baby pictures of himself in the family album, he gets worried. And then he finds a clipping in the album about a meteor strike on the day he was born. That must have been the spaceship he came to earth on.

Bean's brainy friend Gordon the Geek, who wears his laptop strapped in front of him at all times, does a quick search and announces that he knows exactly where Bean must have come from.

"Kepler 22b," he said. "Six Hundred light years away. Average surface temperature 72 degrees Fahrenheit."

That's it. Bean decides he has to return to his home planet, Kepler 22b. His other friend, Eddie the potato chip king, is on it right away. Eddie and the Geek do their research and come up with a MISSION STATEMENT.

PREPARATION AND TRAINING

1. Test cryogenic survival, a.k.a. being frozen alive.
2. Find a country with plans to relocate to Kepler 22b.
3. Raise cash for airfare to foreign country.
4. Get fit. Astronauts have to be in peak physical condition.
5. Pack stuff to take to new planet.
6. Take things to trade with Kepler kids to make friends.

Amazingly, Bean survives the cryogenic survival trial, submerged in the bathtub in Eddie's contribution, eight supersize bags of ice, and the Geek's thermos of dry ice, but it's a near thing for his extremities.

Then Eddie has an better plan. Phone home like ET and ask the Keplerites to come and pick him up. Gordon the Geek has the technology. He'll connect his laptop to the satellite dish atop Bean's house and send a message though the satellite to Keppler 22b. Then all Bean has to do is wait for his real parents to pick him up. Perfect. Right?

But like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Bean finds out that there's really no place like home, in Jo Franklin's forthcoming I'm an Alien and I Want to Go Home (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). Author Jo Franklin's wry and witty writing makes this first novel a laugh-a-minute easy read for upper elementary kids in which Bean realizes that he may have more in common with his family than he ever knew. Illustrator Marty Kelley adds inspired comic drawings which catch Franklin's funny characters in just the right vignettes. For any kid who has ever felt like an alien in his or her own family, this one will definitely phone home.