Alien Nate

Written and illustrated by Dave Whamond

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0209-1

64 pp.

Ages 6-9

April 2020

It all started with a pizza. A pizza that NASA scientists had accidentally left on board Voyager 1 in 1977 and which a ship from Vega found. Now the Vegans want more of that pizza. (Pizza is pretty great.)

Alien Nate was chosen for the mission. When he crashes his space-ship on Earth, he is discovered by kindly Fazel who, when approached by two Men in Beige suits, grabs Nate and makes a run for it, with a little help from a mysterious figure. 

From Alien Nate by Dave Whamond

Fazel decides to take the purple alien to school, covering his antennae with Dad's back-up toupee. Nate is enamoured with learning, rather than just having knowledge plugged into his head, and he loves all earth food but pizza is his favourite, except "the pineapple one. Who puts pineapples on a pizza. I mean, that's just...odd."

From Alien Nate by Dave Whamond

After his boorish classmate Frank discovers Nate is an alien, Fazel creates the Secret Alien Society to keep him quiet. Together they learn much about Vega, which Nate misses terribly, regardless of its technological brilliance and lack of imagination, and is desperate to find a way back to it.

Don't get me wrong...I love it here on Earth. I mean, you're only a one-star planet on Galaxy Advisor, but you've timed your rotation around the sun to match your calendar year. Unheard of! Plus, you have penguins, and they're so cute...

From Alien Nate by Dave Whamond

After a tasty "corn as fuel" misstep and a whole lot of brain power, plus a secret agent with girl power and booster cables, Nate evades the Men in Beige and finds his happy ending. 

Alien Nate may be classified as an early-reader graphic novel but this little pizza-craving alien has been sent by Dave Whamond to make us all laugh and appreciate imagination and pizza. The same chuckles that have drawn me to Dave Whamond's Reality Check cartoons and his earlier picture books (such as Nick the Sidekick, Rosie's Glasses, and Oddrey) will tickle those funny bones with the puns, the play on popular culture (like the blandness of Vegan food, the Men in Beige, and Galaxy Advisor ratings) and commentary on creativity, learning, always being plugged in, dealing with bullies, and diversity. The text is clever and sweet and readers will rise to support Alien Nate and Fazel in their growing friendship, in their sharing of cultures and more. 

Of course, being a graphic novel, Alien Nate does not disappoint with its illustrations. Dave Whamond's pen and ink with watercolour art is as cheeky as the story, vivid in its colours (his trademark pink-purple-periwinkle always make me smile) and inviting readers to see a story from different perspectives like front, back, above, background and up-close. It's all in good fun and in good taste too. (I can smell the pizza, and doughnuts and popcorn...)

Meet Alien Nate for a giggle or twenty and do some honest learning about the value of creativity to develop a real world of friends.

So Much Snow!

by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4617-3

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

August 2016

The collaborative team that brought us Canadian classics The Paper Bag Princess (Annick , 1980) and Thomas’ Snowsuit (Annick, 1985) and so, so many more, have returned to celebrate the onset of the winter season with their newest release, So Much Snow!

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko

Regardless of her mother’s concern of a coming blizzard, little Jasmine is determined to go to school.  After all, it’s Pizza Day and no one wants to miss Pizza Day.  So bundled up in her multi-hued coat and brightly-coloured hat, scarf, mitts, and boots, Jasmine sets out with enthusiasm amidst the early flurries, singing


“Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!
Snowy feet can’t be beat.
Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!
Snowy feet can’t be beat. 
Wintertime is fun!” (pg. 4)

Even when the snow starts accumulating, up to her knees and then up to her bum, she’s still singing a version of her “Wintertime is fun” song, though perhaps with a little less enthusiasm.  By the time she is in sight of the school, that final line of her song has become a question. And, when it is only the top of her hat that peeks out from the drifts of snow, Jasmine has revised that line to “Wintertime is no fun.” (pg. 13)

A frozen Jasmine is rescued by the snowshoed custodian and his St. Bernard, only to become the focus of the school staff’s efforts to defrost her.  The reader will soon realize that Pizza Day has become a snow day and the school is attended by a skeleton staff.  Still Jasmine came for Pizza Day and pizza is what she will have, though not as she expected.

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko

In So Much Snow!, Robert Munsch brings his characteristic absurdity to a typical situation, bundling up his story of a child’s earnestness with a sing-song refrain that reveals much.  Playing on a child’s desperation to go to school for an anticipated treat, regardless of the weather, Robert Munsch makes what could have been a dangerous situation into one of silliness, even developing Jasmine into a character who begins to recognize the nonsense of her situation.  But it’s Michael Marchenko, whose artwork children always associate with Robert Munsch, who brings that folly to life, with his bold colours and textured details of clothing, blankets, and interior and exterior features. (Check out the principal’s checkered pants, the school nurse's flowered boots and the lost mitten pinned to the bulletin board.) Michael Martchenko, who has illustrated many children’s books beyond those of Robert Munsch (one of my favourites for teaching is Enough by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000), will always be seen as the visionary behind Robert Munsch’s words; without his artwork, So Much Snow! would just be a cute story.  Together, though, Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko have created a snow day story to amuse children and gratify their teachers and parents who will understand completely the mind of a child determined not to missed out on something grand, regardless of a few metres of snow.

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko