This book did not receive any awards. This book would be good for kindergartners and first graders since the book is very entertaining and colorful for the younger children while words used in the book are good for beginning readers. The story was about a boy genius named Alistair and his homework assignment was to find the most unusual plant ever. Since he was a boy genius he went searching for this plant in outer space. While he was there he saw alien space ships invading earth. He decided to go back home to see what the deal was about. The aliens were stealing earth's plants and Alistair was curious so he went into the space ship and the aliens were fascinated with Alistair so much that they decided to follow him around to get to know him. They stayed the night on earth, but before they left the next morning they gave Alistair an exotic flower to show their appreciation and Alistair saved the world and got in science homework done. This book deals with diversity of the aliens and problem solving. We would read this if we did an outer space lesson plan since this book deals with aliens. We could also read it together and then write poetry about aliens or space towards the end of the year when the students will be able to write short poems. With the poem they can draw a picture of their aliens as well.

Aliens! Monsters! Lost Library Books!

Alistair is a Very Good Little Boy. He's always clean, always on time, always organized. He always knows just what to do. Which is good, because this Very Good Little Boy ends up in some straaange situations. Only Alistair, on his way to return library books, would get kidnapped by aliens! (Fortunately, he's an excellent navigator and gets them all home safely). Only Alistair would end up with an elephant, find previously unknown monsters while scuba diving, or be able to deal with an alien invasion.

The completely insane situations contrasted with Alistair's consistently deadpan face and Very Good Behavior, will keep you giggling all the way through!

Verdict: Although these books are older, they're not at all outdated. Great fun if you find a used copy or buy the still in print paperback.

Alistair in Outer Space
ISBN: 978-0671666781; Published January 1984 by Simon & Schuster (paperback edition in print)

Alistair's Elephant
ISBN: 978-0671666804; Published September 1983 by Simon & Schuster (out of print)

Alistair Underwater
ISBN: 978-0671694067; Published June 1990 by Simon & Schuster (out of print)

Alistair and the Alien Invasion
ISBN: 978-0671759575; Published April 1994 by Simon & Schuster (out of print)

Alistair's Time Machine
ISBN: 978-0130223517; Published April 1986 by Simon & Schuster (out of print)