Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140552936 ISBN 13: 9780140552935

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1994

An alien teaches an outrageously funny, out-of-this world lesson on that most mysterious of creatures, the human body. "Willis's clever and original text will particularly delight older siblings who may also find that babies are a separate species."--Publishers Weekly. Full color. An IRA/CBC Children's Choice and Parents' Magazine Best Kids' Books of the Year.

About the Author:

Tony Ross lives in London, England.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-3-- A wickedly funny lecture on "Earthlets" (babies) is delivered by Professor Xargle to an amphitheatre of green, five-eyed, tentacled space creatures. Earthlets, he says, "are patted and squeezed after drinking their milk so they won't explode. . . They often leak. When they do they can be pinned into a white cloth or sealed in soft paper with tape." And so goes this anthropological, alien's eye view of babies. When the lesson ends Professor Xargle and class don human disguises and embark on a field trip, by spaceship, to Planet Earth. Ross' bright watercolors are zany and sophisticated, making the most of Willis' wry observations. His pudgy babies find themselves covered in "mash" (baby food), sprinkled with "dust" (baby powder), and rocked to sleep in a "beddy-bye" (cradle). Despite its picture book format, this title may work best in the fiction collection, as a quick read for second and third graders. Laughs abound when one considers the odd way in which we might look to objective observers. The macabre Twilight Zone ending adds to the fun. --Gail C. Ross, Baltimore County Public Library
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