We're Off to Look for Aliens. Colin McNaughton

My 2 1/2 year old son loves this book (and so do I)! It's got two clever twists in it: The book within a book, and the fun ending that will come as a surprise to young readers. The inner book is meant as a sing-along book, and we often sing this song at bedtime. He loves it! Highly recommended.

We're Off to Look for Aliens This clever book-within-a-book (literally) is about an author father whose new children's book arrives from the printers. Dad hands the book to his family to find out what they think and then goes out to walk the dog. When you turn the next page you are presented with a copy of the book he's written, pasted into the pages of the original book. It's a rhyming story about a man and his dog who go off to look for aliens, meeting only outrageous and unfriendly alien monsters until they meet a lovely alien woman and bring her home. When dad returns home, both he and the reader are surprised to learn what his family really thinks!

I am a science fiction fan. I believe my interest began in 2nd grade when my teacher would read a chapter from a book every day after lunch. As I recall one of the books she read was "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" by Robert Heinlein. I went on to read every science fiction book in the school library and continue to read science fiction today. I was in the 2nd grade some 53 years ago so that is quite a few books. Well, now I have a daughter who is a 2nd grade teacher. She asked me to come read to her class. I only had one hour so I could not read a chapter book. I wanted to find a book that would be a good intro to science fiction but not too difficult. Her class is an inclusion classroom so there is a wide range of comprehension skills. I settled on "We're Off To Look For Aliens". The idea of a book within a book really got their attention. The graphics led to a great discussion about each page as well as the text. And the surprise ending really set the hook! We had to go back and look for clues or the lack of them! I think that Colin McNaughton has created a few more science fiction fans. I highly recommend this book for children up to 2nd grade level.