Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | EASY YOR | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
On the day Shirley had invited all of her relatives to dinner and Moe, her husband, was pleasantly tinkering in the yard, a flying saucer quietly landed next to their toolshed.
Shirley and Moe. Just a regular couple from Bellmore. Today, all they are expecting is a nice, quiet dinner with a few cousins. But what do they get? Spacemen! From outer space!
They don't know it yet, but with a touch of human (and alien) kindness and a heaping bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, the galaxy is about to get a little bit smaller.
Author Notes
Arthur Yorinks was born in Roslyn, New York on August 21, 1953. His first children's book, Sid and Sol, was published in 1977. He has written over 30 children's books including Louis the Fish, It Happened in Pinsk, Company's Coming, Christmas in July, Whitefish Will Rides Again!, The Miami Giant, and Tomatoes from Mars. Hey, Al, illustrated by Richard Egielski, won the 1987 Caldecott award. He has also written opera librettos, ballets, plays and film scripts.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
``Beware of spacemen bearing blenders'' might well be the moral of this droll offering, in which aliens examine Suburbia, USA--and vice versa. Ages 3-7. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This edition features a larger trim size and new colorization of the lively cartoon illustrations. When a spaceship lands next to the tool shed, Shirley invites the alien visitors to dinner. By the time the spacemen return, the house is surrounded by soldiers and police, but Shirley's trust in the face of hysteria reveals the spacemen's good intentions. Shirley's everyday reactions to the outsize events are hilarious. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In the most deliciously funny picture-book about extraterrestrials since the Marshalls' Space Case, a pair of friendly, foot-high, insectlike creatures arrive in a bright red flying saucer (at first mistaken for an outsized barbecue) and are invited by a nice middle-aged lady to join a family party. Her husband, more apprehensive, notifies the FBI, so that by the time the creatures report for the appointed meal a mighty arsenal awaits them. Still, when the gift they bring proves to be not a bomb but just a blender (""We weren't sure if you had one of these. . .it was on sale!""), everyone from cousins to marines settles down together for a friendly spaghetti dinner. Small supplies this gentle satire with a suburban neighborhood of identical houses, an array of comically caricatured folks, two charming aliens, and a fierce multitude of military men and their war engines looming from the shadows. Though the style is cartoonish, the execution is subtle as well as humorous. A pointed story with its point well made. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 5-7. Yorinks, this time without his usual illustrator collaborator, Richard Egielski, introduces a run-of-the-mill, middle-aged suburban couple who has some unexpected company for dinner. One day while Moe is tinkering in his yard a red, tripod flying saucer lands, causing his wife, Shirley, to complain, ``Moe, you had to buy that barbecue? It's too big.'' When two buglike creatures disembark and ask to use the bathroom, the couple is thrown into a tizzy. Moe gets even more upset when Shirley invites them to dinner (``Are you crazy? The cousins are coming tonight''); Shirley, however, thinks the strangers look like nice boys. Moe's not convinced; he calls the Pentagon and soon the house is surrounded by helicopters, sharpshooters, and tanks. It turns out that the visitors are very cordial and bring a gaily wrapped present for their hostess. Charming everyone, the aliens, along with Moe, Shirley, the cousins, and even the soldiers and FBI, enjoy a lovely spaghetti dinner. Silly in the best sense of the word, the bizarre happenings will get kids chuckling while adults will appreciate the sly humor. The highlight of Small's amusing watercolors is the befuddled Shirley and Moe and their terrified cousins who relax once they see that the aliens' gift is a blender-and they got it on sale! IC. Extraterrestrial beings-Fiction [CIP] 87-13579
