One random afternoon, a spaceship lands in Pete's backyard. Pete begins helping an alien name Zub repair his spacecraft when, before he knows it, he's in outer space! Zub and his mother invite him to stay for tea, but Pete is worried that he'll be late for tea with his own mom back on Earth.

This is a short and entertaining read that young kids will likely enjoy (although the concept of tea might need to shifted to afternoon snack in some places, such as the U.S.). Personally, I thought that the parallels between Pete's and Zub's lives were a nice touch and could be used as a launch pad to discuss how different cultures appear to be outwardly quite disparate but may have many shared commonalities. The book ends with a few ideas for furthering the concepts in this book, such as discussing different type of tea snacks, looking at the night sky for stars, or encouraging children to draw pictures of what they think creatures from outer space would look like.

The illustrations use bold, bright colors and fairly simple geometric shapes to make for an easily digestible book that isn't overcrowded with details. Not an instant classic, but this is a solid showing for younger audiences. ( )