A Field Guide to Aliens: Intergalactic Worrywarts, Bubblonauts, Sliver-Slurpers, and Other Extraterrestria
Grade 3–6—This volume is similar to Olander'sA Field Guide to Monsters(Marshall Cavendish, 2007)—a facsimile of a stained, doodle-filled scrapbook, full of sketches, text, and clippings by the author, a "senior monstrologist and alienologist." Extraterrestrials described herein include Cloudians, which, as their name suggests, conceal themselves by floating through the air and looking exactly like clouds except for their big round eyes and long flashing tongues. Another species is the Dolfini, who live in the oceans and look like dolphins with arms and legs. The descriptions of the aliens lack real imagination, as if they were fabricated quickly from lists of ideas. The colored drawings in various media are similarly so-so—most 11-year-olds who like to draw could create bogeys at least as creepy. Buy this one only ifMonstersis a hit.—Walter Minkel, Austin Public Library, TXCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.