Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This tongue-and-cheek follow-up to A Field Guide to Monsters is designed to look like a notebook that identifies 27 alien species, offering sketches and handwritten ethnographic notes. Charts contain information on the origin, diet, distinguishing features, sightings of, and use of technology for each specimen, which include "False Santas" (they closely resemble Santa Claus, but "are sterner looking and much less animated when seen up close") and "Disco," who "absorbs beats and rhythms through its feet and doesn't eat or drink." The outlandish menagerie is likely to inspire kids to invent their own alien species. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-This volume is similar to Olander's A 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 if Monsters is a hit.-Walter Minkel, Austin Public Library, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This guide details the existence of a large number of alien life forms that have visited Earth. Each two-page section describes one alien species. Information about the aliens' diets, distinguishing features, and interactions with humans is included; some of the humorous references may be too dated for young readers. Sketchlike illustrations and a few jokey photographs accompany the descriptions. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Concluding after years of reports and direct observations that approximately 45 percent of the world's monsters are actually aliens, Olander, author of A Field Guide to Monsters (2007), offers illustrated notes on 28 types of interstellar interloperfrom the harmless Intergalactic Worrywarts of Planet Insecura and sewage-eating Sliver-Slurpers to more ominous False Santas, robotic onesie-clad Bebies and, scariest of all, Boogie-doods (aka Discos) from Planet Funk. On pages designed to look like well-thumbed scrapbook leaves, each entry includes extensive comments on diet, distinguishing features and details of Close Encounters, all sandwiched between a carefully drawn full-"body" portrait and a set of quicker "eyewitness" sketches and supposed snapshots. Though no replacement for Andrew Donkins's Alien Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Alien A-Z (1999), this makes a worthy addition to our too-thin store of space-alien lore and will leave younger readers on the alert for glimpses of Clustors, Liverpudlins and other nonhuman visitors. (Fiction? 10-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
