Picture Book #10--Aliens in Underpants Save the World

Title:  Aliens in Underpants Save the World

Author:  Claire Freedman

Illustrator:  Ben Cort

Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A

Lexile Measure:  N/A

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Fantasy

Theme:  Fun and humor

Primary and Secondary Characters:  the aliens

Awards:  N/A

Date of Publication:  2009

Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc 

ISBN:  978-0-545-45164-2

Aliens in Underpants Save the World tells the story of aliens who come to earth to steal our underpants.  One day they discover that a meteorite is heading straight to Earth.  Fearing their underpants supply will disappear they quickly head to earth, steal a whole bunch of underpants, sew them together and use them to catch the meteorite and bounce it back into outer space.  It is a fun book with lots of bright, colorful illustrations and a funny story that young students will love.  The words also rhyme so it provides a nice rhythm throughout the story.  This is definitely a book that children will enjoy.

As for classroom use, this would be great for a science fiction or fantasy writing assignment.  They could think of and write stories based on the follow-up of the book.  For example they could write about how the people of earth payed the aliens back for saving them.  Any type of creative writing assignment could be used for this.  They could come up with their own story involving aliens.  Anything to get students using their imaginations and being creative would help to incorporate this story into the class curriculum.