Title: Aliens for Breakfast
Author: Stephanie Spinner and Jonathan Etra
Published: Sept. 28, 2011
Publisher: Random House for Young Readers
Pages: 64
Genre: 2nd grade on up
Review: Library book
It's been ten years since Richard Bickerstaff sat down to breakfast and an alien climbed out of his cereal bowl! Join Richard and Aric, a tiny, wisecracking creature from the planet Ganoob, as they battle to save the world from evil aliens in Aliens for Breakfast, Aliens for Lunch, and Aliens for Dinner. We're reissuing the trilogy with brand-new covers sporting a space age 10th Anniversary logo. Now a new generation of readers can experience the fun and adventure that won these books rave reviews and loyal fans!
We saw this book in our local library and I thought A might like it.
I am slowly introducing her to chapter books as she is about to be a 2nd grader and I know they will be doing chapter books.
This was a cute story. We are introduced to Richard who is surprised that an alien pops up in the cereal he is eating. It seems this alien is there because the planet Earth is being taken over by an evil alien who will befriend you. You just can't look at his teeth. I don't think A liked it as much as I thought she would. I am not sure if it was just not something she would normally pick up or not. I would say this is good for the 1st to 2nd graders to read. The good thing about this book was that the chapters were short! As far as story line it was a pretty simple story line along with simple characters. It moved at a steady pace.
I was born in Davenport, Iowa, and grew up in Rockaway Beach, New York. I read straight through my childhood, with breaks for food, sleep, and the bathroom. I went to college in Bennington, Vermont, moved to New York City, and took a job in publishing so I could get paid for reading. I read so much bad fiction that I needed a break, so I moved to London, and from there I traveled to Morocco, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan India, Nepal, and Ceylon. I came back to America, wandered around some more -- to Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize -- and on returning to New York decided to study Tibetan Buddhist painting (called thangka painting) in Boulder, Colorado.
I painted thangkas for many years. Each one took anywhere from several weeks to a few months to complete, and at long last I understood that this was not the ideal way for me to make a living. Only a few hundred Americans collected thangkas, and they wanted old ones, painted by Tibetan monks. It was time to make a change.
So I took another publishing job, this time in children’s books. I found that I liked children’s books a lot, and before long, I became an editor.
Years passed. I was encouraged to write. I scoffed at the idea that I had anything to write about. I edited some wonderfully talented authors -- Virginia Hamilton, Philip Isaacson, Clyde Robert Bulla, Gloria Whelan, Robin McKinley, Joan Vinge, Garth Nix, and Chris Lynch, among others -- with great enjoyment. Writing seemed like torture by comparison.
Then, to my amazement, I found myself writing a book and having a good time -- simultaneously! The book was ALIENS FOR BREAKFAST, and I enjoyed writing it because my co-author was Jonathan Etra. Jon (who died of heart disease in 1990) was a close friend with a wild sense of humor, and collaborating with him changed my opinion of writing forever. After ALIENS FOR BREAKFAST, and ALIENS FOR LUNCH, which we also co-wrote, I began to think that writing could be interesting fun.
And now that I’ve been doing it full-time for more than ten years, I can tell you why I like it better than a job. First, I can work in my bathrobe. (To the FedEx man and the UPS man, I am "the woman in the plaid flannel robe.") Second, I can eat when I’m hungry, choose when to take phone calls, and walk my dogs any time. Third, the only meetings I have -- and they’re short -- are with the dry cleaner and the post office ladies. Fourth, I can read whatever I please. I may tell people I’m doing research when I read about horse-trekking, or hunting in ancient Greece, or 16 ways to better compost, but the truth is, I’m not doing research, I’m having a good time. Which I think is still allowed
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