First Graders From Mars: Episode #02: The Problem With Pelly - Softcover

Mark Teague developed his writing and painting talents without formal training but with a healthy dose of imagination. Each of Teague's books starts as "notebooks full of sketches and scribbles, strange little drawings, and phrases that seem mostly cryptic that suddenly come together," he explains. His books tackle everything from first graders coping with life on Mars to Shakespearean characters coping with life on earth. Mischievous dinosaurs, witty dogs, nightmare haircuts, messy rooms, closet monsters - all find their way into Teague's wildly inventive books. Teague has also collaborated with many critically acclaimed authors, including Jane Yolen, Audrey Wood, and Cynthia Rylant. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two daughters. For more information about Mark Teague, visit scholastic.com/tradebooks

Kindergarten-Grade 2-In this picture book, multihued, variously appendaged Martians stand in for humans with anxieties that are easily recognizable and translatable to a young child's experience. Tera's family is "normal": she and her parents have matching tentacles, the family baby has two heads. The problem with Pelly, as Tera is happy to remind her, is that she and her family are different, "weird," with their waving fluffernobbins on top of their heads, which serve as both hair and mouths. When a special visitor is announced-Madama Da Luna from the Grand Martian Opera-Pelly yearns to impress the guest by emulating her classmates, but her attempts backfire. Good-humored, cartoonlike illustrations and a happy resolution-Madama Da Luna has a fluffernobbin, too, and Pelly turns out to have an operatic voice-will reassure the audience. This subject is an evergreen one, and has been covered regularly, notably in Rosemary Wells's Yoko (Hyperion, 1998), which uses lunchtime snacks to explore cultural differences. Corey's version is slightly heavy-handed, leaving nothing unexplained, but Teague's sprightly illustrations save the story from outright didacticism. This book follows Horus's Horrible Day (Scholastic, 2001) and children who enjoyed it will find the same universe jauntily depicted here.
Dona Ratterree, The Parkside School, New York City
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