The Spaceman
by Randy Cecil; illus. by the author
Primary    Candlewick    40 pp.
4/24    9781536226164    $17.99

A wee, goggle-eyed alien lands on Earth one night, on a mission to collect soil samples and move on to the next planet. The titular spaceman finds Earth rather ordinary, but then a crow flies off with his spaceship and he must follow the crow “into the unknown.” As he journeys, he discovers more and more fascinating plant life, and when the sun comes up, even more flora is revealed, plus strange but adorable animals such as snails and beautiful ones such as butterflies. One butterfly drops the spaceman into a lily pond, where he floats happily until retrieved by a new friend, a small spotted dog (at first deemed a “hideous beast”). Then comes the conundrum: should he recover the spaceship, now seen to be perched on a tree branch, and continue the mission? After wrestling with his conscience, he slyly pushes the spaceship off the branch, and it sinks into the pond, “never to be seen again.” The spaceman now must remain on Earth: “In this extraordinary place. Laughing and playing. And enjoying the gentle breeze with my friend.” The book’s appeal stems from the interplay of the formal narration with the extreme cuteness of the protagonist and the other creatures, including highly expressive faces and body language. The soft palette, in apt greens and blues, reinforces the charm of the bucolic landscape.

Pubissue-From the March/April 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.