They Came from Planet Zabalooloo!

Ooh la la! The aliens from planet Zabalooloo are visiting planet earth. Three intergalactic travellers, Zoron is the clever one, Bazoo the strong one and Zob, who has a tendency to get overexcited. The little blue men are on a mission to bring back something amazing from their travels, to impress their friends. At first the aliens try to collect something really big to take home. They find an elephant but Bazoo wants a photograph first. Unfortunately the aliens miss their chance to capture it. Next the aliens set their sights on something medium size and find a lion. Zob gets over excited and cannot help himself from dancing and again the aliens miss their chance again. Undeterred our determined adventurers carry on, desperate to find something impressive to take home - but they realise that the creature (a chick) is far happier where he is. In the end the space travellers fail to take home a great treasure but still feel that their epic adventure has been a great success.

This is a quirky but sweet story that readers will find quite endearing. The blundering aliens will certainly bring on the giggles. There is an important underlying message to the story, that wild life belongs in its own natural habit. We're glad that Zoron, Bazoo and Zob worked that out before taking precious animals back to Zabalooloo! The story could also be used in maths classes to work out relative sizes (big, medium, small).

Picture book / Ages 4+ / Reviewed by Emily Beale, school librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 3+