Nerds vs Aliens by Barry Jonsberg

"Breaking news: it's a book and you're reading it! Good onya. Beats scrolling through your pone and it probably thrills your parents. I have no idea who you are, but I can guess. ... 

(anyway) if you keep reading you'll get to know heaps about me ... "

Even though I am not (impressive term coming up) an omniscient narrator.

The aliens have an important reason for visiting earth. They have noticed the way humans are treating the planet. Who will they tell? Will anyone listen? Is the end of the world coming? How can three nerds possibly help?

This is a story told in two halves. Part One is entitled Broccoli and Part Two is Chocolate mud cake with a possible dollop of icecream.  I was certain for about half the book that all this talk of aliens was just someone playing a trick on Mo because the answer to my first question posed here about communication - well, the answer is via fridge magnets! Yes you did read that correctly - fridge magnets. Mo finds messages on his fridge and he is sure the messages are from aliens who are coming to our earth. I need to say our earth because these aliens also use the term earth when referring to their own home planet - confusing yes.

Mo has a date for the arrival of the aliens and we know this right from the first page so you and your young reading companion, or class or you as a reader of course, are sure to anticipate that this book will follow a countdown. 

"The World will end at ten thirty-six in the morning, on the fourteenth of March this year."

Mo just has to convince his friends Aitch (Harrison Harrison - yes it is a great name) and Ally (do NOT call her Alison. She is a book worm and can be quite touchy) that the aliens are really coming and that they, three kids from Earth are the ones the aliens want to talk to - yes that is wild. (and I have put a hint about why they want to come in the labels for this post).

Ally explains this to Aitch: "Mo believes aliens are on their way ... You think he's crazy and make fun of him, even though this is stuff he obviously understands. It's like an obsession with him. You know nothing about the subject and he's an expert, so how about you get excited for him, rather than making him feel small"

Interspersed through this book are asides and commentary from Aitch himself - these are so funny. That is why I added the label to this post "Breaking the Fourth Wall".

Here is an example:

"I said I'd done some research on how to write a book? Well, it seems a story about aliens might be fun for kids, but a book about being supportive of your mates will definitely thrill teachers and librarians. It's not just similes and metaphors that rock their boats, but also uplifting stories about being nice to each other. So I reckon I've got a couple of bases covered here. Entertaining with a moral. Buy lots of class sets. Just a suggestion."

I think this book could one to read aloud to your Grade 4 or 5 class, but I do need to give a small content warning - there are a few mild swear words so I strongly recommend reading this book yourself first - it won't take long. I read the whole book in just over an hour one afternoon a few weeks ago. Here are a few examples in case you think I am 'making this up'. "rat's bumhole"; "bugger all"; "scare the hell out of you"; and "damn". 

I am not sure if this is important, but the aliens have been studying us using the television show Home and Away. I think kids in Australia will know about this and also kids in the UK but I am not so sure about kids in the US - perhaps that isn't important - this is my attempt at an aside similar to the ones Aitch uses when he is telling this story. Oh and the aliens are big fans of Taylor Swift too! And they know about Bluey and KMart.

More plot details here What Book Next? Listen to Barry Jonsberg reading the first chapter of his book with the Your Kids Next Read team. 

A wild ride that's full of laughs ... Readings Melbourne

Aimed at middle-grade readers, Nerds vs Aliens delights in Pop culture references like Bluey and Kmart, adding to its Aussie appeal without the cringe. Although there is some crude toilet humour that might leave some parents squirming. Despite all the quirky comedic relief, Nerds vs Aliens delves into more serious themes surrounding our planet and its treatment, and the effect on future generations. Jonsberg’s is conscious of being didactic and instead applies a clever and thoughtful response to these matters, resolving with an empowering message and wholesome twist. Story Links

Thanks to Gleebooks kids for sharing the advance copy of Nerds vs Aliens which was published on 31st March 2026. 

The cheeky tone and Science Fiction themes and laugh out loud moments of Nerds vs Aliens made me think of this book which sadly is long out of print (note to any publisher reading this please bring this book back for kids to read today - it is so fantastic);

Halfway across the Galaxy and Turn Left

And this one (for younger readers);

And this one:

The World ends in April

I previously talked about these books by Barry Jonsberg:

Catch me if I fall

The dog that dumped on my doona

My life as an alphabet

The Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander

“Do you swear to venture forth bravely and find the answer to any question, 

no matter the challenge?”

If you mashed together Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth you might come close to the plot of this book - such a wild ride. You will turn the pages so quickly as you read this book desperate to see if Lenora can survive all the mayhem.  

The only extra things I would have liked were a library map and perhaps a Dewey decimal chart showing all the library departments where Lenora was sent by the Chief Librarian Malachi. Lenora goes to the calendar room, the map room and the unknown room which actually has information about tardigrades, all the while she is being chased by the enemy who brings darkness. Along the way her status rises and she is awarded new badges. Lenora has to be very mindful of the library motto:

Knowledge is Light

Bookseller blurb: With her parents off traveling the globe, Lenora is bored, bored, bored until she discovers a secret doorway into the ultimate library. Maze like and reality-bending, the library contains all the universe's wisdom. Every book ever written, and every fact ever known, can be found within its walls. And Lenora becomes its newly appointed Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian. She rockets to the stars, travels to a future filled with robots, and faces down a dark nothingness that wants to destroy all knowledge. To save the library, Lenora will have to test her limits and uncover secrets hidden among its shelves.

In the chaos of this story there is also commentary on censorship, the role of libraries as providers of free information, the importance of curiosity, and of course the value of libraries as organised repositories of books, maps, charts, ephemera and so much more. Materials from everywhere and every time period.

"The Forces of Darkness wish to control people, and it is every knowledge that prevents them from doing so. ... They can only rule where there is ignorance, they can only create fear where the truth has been hidden, they can only gain power when the light has been snuffed out. Librarians are their greatest enemy, and we have fought them throughout time, and always will fight them as long as that light burns anywhere, no matter how weakly."

I may not have kept reading this book actually because it all became a little too silly for me but then I took a detour last night and glanced at the Kirkus review. Such is the power of their work that the star they gave The Library of Ever spurred me on to stick with this story although I am not so sure I need to read the sequel. I did enjoy Lenora's common sense, determination, perseverance, and her amazing general knowledge. She certainly adapted well to the roles of Assistant Apprentice Librarian and later Assistant Librarian. 

There are moments in this story that made me smile:

"The tardigrade snarled. 'As far as we tardigrades are concerned, Pluto is and always will be a planet. end of discussion. ...Lenora saw no reason to argue. She had always thought that Pluto seemed like a perfectly fine planet, whatever the adults might tell her. She took out her notebook. Pluto is, always will be, a planet. This she underlined firmly."

"I would like to know,' she said, 'how to find Wales.' 'You've found them,' said the whale. 'We are in fact, beluga whales.' 'Oh,' said Lenora. 'I mean Wales, the place, not whales, the mammal. 'Hmph' replied the whale ... And I suppose you think that just because I am a whale, a mammal, that I automatically know the location of Wales, the place?"

Not the first tale to be set in a universal library but unusually clever in the details and commendably accurate in its own way. Kirkus Star review

At its heart, The Library of Ever is a love letter to librarians and an ode to the importance of access to knowledge and information for everyone. The Winged Pen

Here is a fun interview with the author and the web page for Zeno Alexander. I picked up my copy of The Library of Ever at a recent charity book sale for $2. This book was published in 2019 but it is still available as is the sequel:

Bookseller blurb: Lenora returns to the magical Library—which holds every book ever known on its shelves. But she discovers the Library is under new management, its incredible rooms and corridors turned sinister and oppressive. Lenora quickly connects with a secret resistance that’s trying to free knowledge from the darkness threatening it. Her new friends introduce her to an ancient lost city, hang-gliding, and mathematical beings larger than the universe itself.

Companion books:

The 113th Assistant Librarian

Lost in a Book

The Lost History

Escape from Mr Lemoncello's Library

The Lost Library

The Phantom Tollbooth

Curiosity: The story of a Mars Rover by Markus Motum

This book is nonfiction at its best. An engaging first-person narrative interspersed with all the facts a curious reader needs so they can learn more about the Mars Rover named Curiosity which was launched on 26th November 2011 and after 253 days of space travel Curiosity arrived on the planet Mars which is three hundred and fifty miles away from Earth!

The latest and greatest of the Mars rovers tells its tale and explains its purpose. ... The personification adds an appealing angle to this venturesome visit to Earth’s closest planetary neighbor. Kirkus

Oversized format, with dramatic black backgrounds and futuristic geometric renderings, make this a good choice for classroom sharing, and text that allows an adult reader to charge ahead with the main information—or to linger over technical details—adds to its flexibility.  Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

You can see inside this book here. Curiosity: The story of a Mars Rover was shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize 2018.

Even the title is clever - the innocent little word "a" is so important because this is just one Mars Rover there have been others before and after Curiosity. I love knowing a sixth grader from Kansas - Clara Ma - gave Curiosity his/her name. This book ends with a quote from Clara:

"Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much."

I recently read A Rover's Story. Boy oh boy I wish I had also known about THIS book - it is the perfect companion read. Every Primary library needs BOTH of these books. As I read Curiosity: The story of a Mars Rover I kept nodding my head at all the plot points Jasmine Warga included in her novel - the sterile environment where the rovers were built and tested, the naming of the rover through a nation wide competition, the inclusion of all the cameras and rock testing lab inside the rover and above all the personality of these robots - yes I did say personality!

A Rover's Story

Here is another book by Markus Motum:

Ajay and the Jaipur Moon by Varsha Shah

"Space offers us new worlds to conquer, new territories to colonize, and endless resources to take."

These are the words of Mrs Surya. At first they sound glorious to the audience and to the team of kids who have come to meet this famous millionaire but slowly the truth behind this sentence is revealed. You could use this sentence to introduce this book to your readers aged 10+. Think about the words conquer, colonize and take. Colonize is especially poignant when you consider this book is set in India and they were colonized by the British.

Now look at this statement by Mrs Surya:

"As you know, the WECU corporation own factories across the globe. With the willing support of politicians, I will move them into space so that they no longer pollute our world. No longer bogged down with laws and human rights, these factories will be a blueprint for oligarchs everywhere."

The words 'human rights' should chill you. In the first book the workers in the T-Shirt factory were subjected to horrid working conditions. In this second book we meet the slum kids of Jaipur. Their leader, a girl named Laxmi is missing one finger as a result of working in a jewelry making factory. You should review the UN Rights of the Child with your class. 

Now read Chapter 28 - and think about the consequences of Mrs Surya vision of space, her assumed role as leader, and the way she uses words to manipulate the kids and later her press conference audiences. Even her office, with the glass floor and the way the door snaps shut are all about control and power. When you are reading this book notice the references to her eyes - "windows to her corrupt soul."

Ajay and his team of street kids work hard to survive living on the streets of Mumbai. The produce a newspaper which last year led to some fame but as time has passed people are no longer interested in reading the news and printing their paper each week is a huge struggle without a proper printing press. But buying a new press means they need a lot of money. Then Ajay reads about a competition to find a meteorite that has crashed into the earth. Whoever finds it will be given a tour of the new space research base in Jaipur. 

Ajay has a talented team of friends: Vinod is a wonderful cook; Yasmin, safely away from the dangerous T-shirt factory is a very fine artist; Saif is an apprentice engineer who can solve any engineering problem; and Jai is a first-class cricketer.

Working as a team I was sure these kids would find a way to travel from Mumbai to Jaipur, and I knew they would find a way to win this competition. BUT standing in their way there are difficulties, lies, betrayals and corrupt adults. Saif finds the location of the meteorite but as they arrive in Jaipur his tools are stolen. This is just the first disaster. In fact, there are so many twists in this plot I began to think these kids would not survive let alone succeed.

If you read this book in a class you will want to add in some research about Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937) Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015), and Asima Chatterjee (1917-2006). Along with the astronaut Kalpana Chawla (1962 -2003).

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose is one of the most prominent first Indian scientists who proved by experimentation that both animals and plants share much in common. He demonstrated that plants are also sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various other external stimuli.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007. He began his career designing helicopters for the Indian Army as an aeronautical engineer for the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). In 1969, he was moved to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), where he served as project director on SLV-III, the nation's first satellite launch vehicle, which was successful in putting the satellite Rohini into a near-Earth orbit in 1980.

Asima Chatterjee was an Indian chemist noted for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine. Her most notable work includes research on vinca alkaloids, and the development of anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs. She also authored a considerable volume of work on medicinal plants of the Indian subcontinent.

Kalpana Chawla was American astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle ‘Columbia’ disaster. Born in Karnal, India, she was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. In May 1997, she went on her first space mission, travelling for fifteen days in the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. In 2003, she travelled once again into the space aboard ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-107.

You can read chapter one on the Chicken House page. 

This is an exciting and beautifully written and illustrated book for children aged eight and upwards. It could be the starting point for discussions about what friendship means to them and how they relate to each other’s varying interests and future plans. School Reading List UK

Alongside action and humour are serious socio-political messages. The power imbalance between rich and poor is a significant theme and there is mention of child labour and exploitation. There are many points in the book that would prompt deep discussions. ‘What defines where someone belongs?’ asks Ajay. He later comments, ‘All that matters about a society is the way it treats its most vulnerable.’  The children’s achievements (in the face of adversity) and their tight friendship makes Ajay and the Jaipur Moon an empowering and heart-warming read. Just Imagine

You could also use this book to discuss the depiction of a character - Mrs Surya. Her clothes are both interesting and obscene when you think about the poverty experienced by the kids in this book. She reminded me of the evil woman in Beetle Boy by MG Leonard.

"Her eyes were the colour of warm caramel ... her smile eclipsing the sun.

"She turned and gave a magnetic smile that he was sure was just for him! She looked magnificent as she went to stand on the podium ... wearing a silver sari encrusted with scales of diamonds that blazed in the light of the chandelier."

"Up close, glittering from head to toe, with silver star earrings, and the border of the sari snaking around her, she looked even more striking."

"Mrs Surya glittered from head to toe in a lace sari that was encrusted with diamonds and looked like the clouds of the milky way. ... she looked like a figure spun from light."

This is the second book about Ajay and his newspaper The Mumbai Sun. I loved the first and this sequel did not disappoint.

Ajay and the Mumbai Sun

City of Light by Julia Lawrinson illustrated by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson

On February 20, 1962, more than 10 months after Russia sent the first man into space and after 10 aborted attempts at lift-off, Lt-Col Glenn was squeezed inside the Friendship 7 capsule and blasted into orbit. Bill King, a journalist atThe West Australian, was looking for a local angle on the story and suggested Perth residents leave their lights on to see if the city would be visible from space.

Have you read My Place in Space (an old book from 1992)? City of Light begins with the same idea - 

"Here we are. In the place where we live. A city called Perth. Western Australia. The World. The universe."

The two children really want the astronaut to see them, but mum explains "We're too far away. We're too small." Luckily these two children are problem solvers. They are sure their hero in space will see them if they create something BIG. 

"All over our city. All the lights are shining bright."

My friend has an utterly wonderful and comprehensive collection of Picture Book Biographies. I was tasked with finding some specific titles last week and so I took the opportunity to borrow a few for myself one of which was this very new book City of Light. This book is beautifully presented and covers an event that was completely new to me but unfortunately the book designer did not include a page or two of back matter so I had to do a little of my own research but so far, I cannot find any details about these two children - the city was indeed lit up, but I think this was an idea from a newspaper reporter. 

February 20th, 1962 is a date that is significant for those interested in space exploration, for it was the day that astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in a space capsule named Friendship 7. ... John Glenn’s flight was notable for Perth in particular as the population, in empathy with feelings of isolation and distance from home of the space traveler, turned on their lights to provide a welcome light which Glenn commented on during his first orbit as he was being tracked by Muchea. This symbolic event has become a highlight in Perth’s history, earning the city the name “City of Light.

From the author web page: City of Light tells the true story of how two children from Perth captured the imagination of the residents of their city, with the idea to leave their lights on so that astronaut John Glenn could see Perth from space, during his first human orbit of Earth on 20 February 1962. And so, it’s a heartening story of community collaboration during a time of fascination with early advances in outer space travel.

Here is a set of very comprehensive teachers notes with lots of web links to explore. Here is an interview with Julia Lawrinson and Alphabet Soup. Here is the Kids' Book Review. This book will fit really well into many class topics - Life in the past; Space Exploration; and any science unit about light. 

I am sure we will see this book listed as a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Eve Pownall notable and perhaps even as a short-listed title.

Grandpa was an Astronaut by Jonathan Meres illustrated by Hannah Coulson

Sherman loves to visit his Grandpa. Many decades ago his grandfather truly was an astronaut. He has a photo taken on the moon and a tiny fragment of moon rock on display in his lounge room. Sherman readily joins in with their beautiful game of imagination. Grandpa talks to Sherman with his astronaut voice. Together they build a rocket, the dog named Luna joins them, and they all head off to the moon. Very luckily some one is able to rescue them when they forget to pack basic supplies such as lemonade and biscuits.

Scattered through the story are puns and jokes which are sure to make adult readers and some older children smile. 

"What do you do if you see a spaceman? You park, man."

"That's one small step for dog ... One giant leap for dogkind."

Alongside this sense of poignancy there is also humour. Books for Keeps

Presented as a small-format, illustrated story for newly-independent readers, the adventures of Sherman and his Grandpa will be familiar to many youngsters who have a close relationship with a grandparent. An engaging mix of fantasy and pretend play, the story also touches on the inevitability of loss and the value of making memories.   Book Trust

This tiny book from the Little Gems series truly is a GEM!  In just 85 pages and seven short chapters you will experience a beautiful relationship between a young boy and his grandfather and on the final pages you may be moved to tears - this is a powerful story. Spoiler alert - Grandpa does not die but he is old and his life journey will end - just not today.

To discover more Little Gems click on the label at the end of this post. I highly highly highly recommend you add as many Little Gems to your school library as your budget allows. 

Jonathan Meres and Hannah Coulson have another Little Gem title:

Stellarphant by James Foley

"One ordinary Monday, at 9am precisely, Stella walked into Space Command. 'Hello,' she said. 'I'd like to become an astronaut.' The man stopped clacking on his keyboard and looked up. 'But ... you're an elephant,' said the man. '

I am,' said Stella, holding out her application."

Stella the elephant is fighting interstellar discrimination one pachyderm at a time! Stella wants to be an astronaut. There is only one problem: Stella is an elephant. Every time she applies to Space Command, they come up with a new reason she can’t join. But where there’s a will, there’s a way and Stella is determined to reach for the stars. Fremantle Press

Stellarphant was published in 2021 and I was one of three judges for our National book of the Year competition so I was not able to talk about this book until late last year. In fact I am a judge again for this round (2022-23) and we have been sent SO many amazing children's picture books but I just have to wait until August 2023 to share them with you. Stellarphant won an honour award from the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia). I think by now I have talked about nearly all of the short list, winning and notable picture books from 2021 submitted for the 2022 award. You need to know Stellarphant is one of the best! 

This book ticks all the boxes for me. I adore the character of Stella – her persistence, her patience, her intelligence, her determination. The setting is perfect too, with tiny touches of humour in the illustrations which serve as a commentary on the idiocy of the bureaucracy who keep rejecting young Stella. 

On the cover, Stella looks so young but she is clearly fascinated by space and space travel and she has big dreams. The book design has been carefully crafted and the end papers are especially clever. I love the way curious readers can now potentially explore other animals in space. I did some research last year about Laika for example, and that story alone is a fascinating (and tragic) one. 

James Foley conveys so much emotion onto the face of Stella through her eyes, tongue and forehead wrinkles – just delightful. Adult readers will enjoy the sly jokes such as the “elephant in the room” and those young white male managers all wearing the corporate tie. The fold out page at the end is also a delightful addition. Make sure you find the office pot plant. Watching it grow a little bigger each time Stella rises to yet another challenge by the men of Space Command is such a terrific way to mark the passing of time. 

The addition of the sheep mopping the floors subtlety adds to this message about privilege and diversity – the ‘other’ is doing the menial work. Make sure you look for the sheep in Stella's space crew!

Stellarphant is a story of being creative and innovative, and overcoming prejudice. It's also about dreaming big and never giving up. Kids' Book Review

Stella is made of something impenetrable, undefeatable, and undeterrable. I guess it’s her elephant skin plus her brilliant mind and practical nature. Reading Time

The CBCA judges say...

This story about an anthropomorphised, larger than life elephant can be read either as an ironic comment on privilege and diversity or the power of persistence. Readers will admire Stella’s resilience and problem solving as she challenges the status quo of Space Command’s space programme. Foley’s use of humour and playfulness outweigh any dogma. Stella and her gang jump off the page with gumption and determination. The endpapers are fascinatingly informative. ... This book has the potential for lots of rich discussion around who become powerful, educated, and celebrated and who doesn’t.

Here are James Foley's web pages. Here are some resources to use with Stellarphant.

AWARDS 

• Better Reading’s 2022 Top 50 Kids’ Books (Winner 2022)
• Children’s Book Council of Australia’s (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year (Honour book 2022)
• WA Premier’s Book Award (Shortlisted 2022)
• Speech Pathology Book of the Year (Shortlisted 2022)
• Children’s Book Council of Australia’s (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year (Shortlisted 2022)
• Aurealis Awards for Best Children’s Fiction (Shortlisted 2022)

Image source: James Foley

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

This is a dystopian story that opens around the year 2150 and then the setting moves to the year 2600. Earth is in danger in 2150 and civilisation is disintegrating. It is now too late to save life on earth especially since a comet - Halley’s Comet -  is on a collision course to destroy everything. A unnamed group of officials decide to save a group of people and send them to a distant planet. These people will be 'reprogrammed' with the  hope to end all wars and unrest and make everyone equal. It will take many generations for these people to reach Sagan.  But as is always the pattern in a dystopian novel equality doesn’t mean everyone’s the same. Equality and a peaceful world sound great but the danger is in what people will do to make that happen. As a Goodreads reviewer says: "The book is political in that many, many science fiction stories are political. The book is essentially a dystopia set on a spaceship and another planet. Dystopias are almost always political because they show us power gone sour."

"You won't even know any time has passed when we're up there. ... This sleep will last three hundred and eighty years."

"One hundred and forty-six people ... is all it takes for humans to continue with enough genetic diversity ... "

Petra and her family are put into stasis pods. There are Monitors on each ship who keep it running but they won't make it to Sagan. 

"El Cognito's downloadable cognisance puts the organs and brain to sleep immediately. The gel preserves tissue indefinitely, removing senescent cells and waste. It not only provides nutrients and oxygen the body will need for such a long stay in stasis, but lidocaine in the gel numbs never endings making the gel's colder temperature comfortable upon awakening."

Over the hundreds of years in this 'frozen' state the brains are filled with information to aid survival on the new planet and old memories are supposed to be purged but Petra keeps her memories of Earth and more importantly she keeps her memories of the stories - she indeed the last storyteller - the last cuentista.  Her stories will save her life and the life of the four other surviving children. 

Sagan feels like the garden of Eden but the climate is strange with hours of dangerous winds and the possibility of dangerous animals and plants but life on this planet will be so much better then living under the control of the Monitors and paying subservience to The Collective. 

Read this School Library Journal review by Betsy Bird and this one on Charlotte's Library blog. I agree with her comment: It is not a comfortable read. It is a powerful, wrenching, disturbing one. I couldn't read it all in one sitting. I am wavering between three and four stars. 

Bookseller blurb: There lived a girl named Petra Pena, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra's world is ending. Earth will soon be destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children - among them Petra and her family - have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet - and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard - or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

Here is a very detailed set of teacher notes with questions for each chapter. 

This book has received so many award including the BIG one - the Newbery Medal.

• Winner of the John Newbery Medal 
• Winner of the Pura Belpré Award 
• Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Year 
• Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Best of the Year 
• Boston Globe’s Best of the Year 
• BookPage’s Best of the Year 
• Publishers Weekly’s Best of the Year 
• School Library Journal’s Best of the Year 
• Kirkus Reviews’ Best of the Year 
• Bank Street’s Best of the Year 
• Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best 
• New York Public Library Best of the Year 
• A Junior Library Guild Selection 
• Cybils Award Finalist 

I did find this book quite difficult to read because I am not a fan of interwoven folktales - I keep thinking I am supposed to make important connections between these stories and Petra's present awful reality. The two covers above are the US and UK editions. 

Here are some companion reads:

This book is very old and long out of print but it is such a powerful story. 

Forbidden Memories - this book is sadly long out of print

This is an Australian book and sadly it is also long out of print.

Here is another amazing Australian Science Fiction book - and yes it is out of print

The Future Trap

The Last Human

The Little Prince adapted by Louise Greig illustrated by Sarah Massini

"At sunrise a strange little voice broke my sleep. Please draw me a sheep. I blinked. 

The voice belonged to a charming little prince."

This is a new Picture Book adaptation of the famous book Le Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery and I think it manages to cover most of the plot.  If you want to introduce this story to younger children this picture book version is well worth finding especially if you and your young reading companion are happy just to read this as a fanciful tale and you have no need to seek deeper meanings. The illustrations in this picture book are also very appealing. 

On his journey to Earth, the Little Prince visits a series of planets. He meets a King, a show-off, a drinker, a businessman, a lamp-lighter, a geographer. Three of these are depicted in this new picture book version. I like the way the businessman who is obsessed with numbers is shown on a planet crowded with technology. Louise Greig leaves out the show-off, the drinker (this might please you), and the geographer. As in the original story he does meet the fox but not the snake. 

After reading this new picture book adaption of The Little Prince I went back to read the novella - I read a translation by Alan Wakeman illustrated by Michael Foreman. 

"This is my secret. It's very simple: we only really see with our hearts. 

What matters is invisible to the eyes."

There are a few very famous children's books which I find are somehow beyond my comprehension - The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle ; The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

If you think there must be more to this story Penguin UK list seven timeless life lessons from The Little Prince.

1.     Don’t be too fond of numbers

2.     Look after the planet

3.     Don’t judge others by their words, but by what they do

4.     Relationships make life worth living

5.     The important things in life you cannot see with your eyes, only with your heart

6.     It is the time you give to something that makes it precious

7.     And finally, remember to look up at the stars

If you are interested in how well The Little Prince has been translated take a look at this article which compares ten the work of ten translators. 

Here are some comments about the original story:

1001 Children's Books you must read before you grow up:  "The story, absurd though it is in structure, strikes a cord with readers young and old, even though its subject matter is not particularly childish."

101 Books to read Before you Grow up: "This is an honest and beautiful story about loneliness, friendship, sadness and love. ... but don't be fooled by its small size, it is an intelligent story meant to be thought about deeply and encourage you to build castles in the air."

Charlotte Huck Children's Literature in the Elementary School: "A popular fairy tale of our time for adults and children ... Some children will find the hidden meanings in a tale such as The Little Prince; others will simply read it has a good story; and still others will be put off reading it altogether because it isn't real. Children vary in their capacity for imaginative thinking."

The Little Prince was first published in 1943. It has been translated into 300 languages and sold millions of copies. The story has been adapted into other forms such as plays; television; and opera. There are also at two schools one in France: L'école Le Petit Prince; and one in Ontario: L'école élémentaire catholique Le Petit Prince. Before France adopted the Euro, drawings from The Little Prince were on their 50-franc banknote. 

Here are a few other spin off titles due for publication this year:

Even though I found The Little Prince a confusing story I am intrigued to read this new edition translated by Michael Morpurgo especially after the reading I have done for this post which has increased my understanding of the novella The Little Prince:

And this one looks quite special by Italian illustrator Manuela Adreani. It is not a picture book version as it has 80 pages. 

Sarah Massini is the illustrator of Star in the Jar. Louise Greig is the author of The Night Box.