Alien Investigation
Spring, 2012, Millbrook/Lerner
Alien Investigation: Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens
Available January 15, 2012!
REVIEWS
"You can always count on Kelly Milner Halls to be interesting. It’s not by accident that her website dubs itself Wonders of Weird. The woman is good at creating the kinds of books I would have dived into headfirst as a kid. Whether it’s Tales of the Cryptids, In Search of Sasquatch or her newest, Alien Investigation, she puts the time into her nonfiction titles, no matter how out there they might be. In this latest she’s interviewed experts and presents a book that contains all the different ways of looking at alien encounters. The idea is to leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves. FYI: She apparently does school visits. Man, can you think of any cooler topic from an author at a school than bigfoot or aliens? Fingers crossed that she does ghosts next. Failing that, spontaneous human combustion."
-- November 14, 2011, School Library Journal's Librarian Preview by Elizabeth Bird (WOW!)
Children often find stories about aliens and spaceships fascinating and interesting. They typically have lots of questions too. To find a book that provides children a mixture of facts, pieces of information from the news, and interviews all in an easy to understand format is not easy. Kelly Milner Halls has provided just such a book. The book is divided into four chapters that looks at UFO's or space ship sightings over the years. This is followed by a chapter on Crashes and Landings. Next up is a section on Aliens, and it is followed by Hoaxes and Misunderstandings. Throughout the book, children are cued in by the term Imagine and a team of bold alien explorers provide a view point of the aliens preparing to travel. The book concludes with the question "Real or Unreal?"
Though the book has only 64 pages, it is filled with a significant amount of text and information. I sometimes find that teachers might consider a book of this length as not long enough for use for a report. However, in reading through this book, Milner Hall has managed to do an admirable job of condensing extensive amount of research into a form that children will find accessible. Additionally, the book does not lean in one direction or the other. It allows the reader to form their own conclusions and to explore further the possibility that life exists beyond earth.
After reading through this book, I would recommend it for any school or classroom library.
Kid Lit Frenzy, February 22, 2012
Kelly Milner Halls has written an accessible non-fiction text which delicately balances speculation, research, anecdote, and cultural reference. ALIEN INVESTIGATION has plenty of "what-if" factor that will invite younger readers to consider thoughtfully the possibilities of spacecraft and life on other planets.
Halls gently invites the reader to visit the book and to consider these possibilities making no claim for any of the inclusions in the book to be "true."
As a multimodal text, ALIEN INVESTIGATION is pleasing to the eye with its deep blacks and mysterious greens. Some pages look like File Tabs wherein Halls, an expert researcher and careful reporter, digs deeper into the subject by calling up scientists, military officials, screenplay writers, even a Kentucky librarian with an anecdotal account of a childhood experience.
In fewer than 70 pages, Halls is able to break down sightings over a continuum of 60 year, offering sites and scenarios. Further, Halls offers the types of spacecraft reported and how they have been credited or seemingly discredited by larger governing bodies.
Interwoven into the text is the story of an alien who boards a ship with a crew and makes his way to earth, a gentle suggestion that how we receive the idea of life on other planets is indicated by how we treat the very subject in our everyday conversations.
ALIEN INVESTIGATION will be an immediate hit with younger boy readers already interested in space and aliens. Halls, like Loree Griffin Burns and Tanya Lee Stone, are leading the way as authors ready to be included in the new focus on non-fiction standards in the ELA classroom.
Halls has already made herself welcome with a number of engaging titles. ALIEN INVESTIGATION is another "can't-miss" for Halls, an author who should be celebrated for her dedication to process and her attention to the needs of younger non-fiction readers.
Feb. 4, 2012 -- Five Stars from teacher Paul Hankins at Goodreads
Kelly Milner Halls' Alien investigation : Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens allows that there are people who believe [unconditionally] in life on other planets and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and people who do not, and then sets out to look at existing evidence, providing a very balanced view of the subject for readers on either side of the issue.
Among chapters that include dozens of examples of described sightings and encounters are interviews with credible sources that provide readers with information that could add to these debates, such as physicist Stanton Friedman, who believes in the likelihood of long-distance space travel, and government black programs expert Michael Scraft, who would write off many UFO sightings as having been classified tests of advanced military crafts.
The design of the book allows for pictures that illustrate the subject, whether the 'ball lightning' that has been confused for an alien spaceship, or archival photos of places where aliens were seen and the people who saw them. Another clever design feature is the report tab that denotes the interview pages. The end matter is as thorough as Halls' other books, and includes a glossary, source notes, sources, a bibliography, photo acknowledgements and a list of UFO organizations and festivals for readers interested in the subject.
The even-handedness of the subject makes this a book that will find a home in any library, and one that is a natural draw for reluctant readers.
February 5, 2012 -- Librarian Betsy Fraser, Reality Rules
Available January 15, 2012!
REVIEWS
"You can always count on Kelly Milner Halls to be interesting. It’s not by accident that her website dubs itself Wonders of Weird. The woman is good at creating the kinds of books I would have dived into headfirst as a kid. Whether it’s Tales of the Cryptids, In Search of Sasquatch or her newest, Alien Investigation, she puts the time into her nonfiction titles, no matter how out there they might be. In this latest she’s interviewed experts and presents a book that contains all the different ways of looking at alien encounters. The idea is to leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves. FYI: She apparently does school visits. Man, can you think of any cooler topic from an author at a school than bigfoot or aliens? Fingers crossed that she does ghosts next. Failing that, spontaneous human combustion."
-- November 14, 2011, School Library Journal's Librarian Preview by Elizabeth Bird (WOW!)
Children often find stories about aliens and spaceships fascinating and interesting. They typically have lots of questions too. To find a book that provides children a mixture of facts, pieces of information from the news, and interviews all in an easy to understand format is not easy. Kelly Milner Halls has provided just such a book. The book is divided into four chapters that looks at UFO's or space ship sightings over the years. This is followed by a chapter on Crashes and Landings. Next up is a section on Aliens, and it is followed by Hoaxes and Misunderstandings. Throughout the book, children are cued in by the term Imagine and a team of bold alien explorers provide a view point of the aliens preparing to travel. The book concludes with the question "Real or Unreal?"
Though the book has only 64 pages, it is filled with a significant amount of text and information. I sometimes find that teachers might consider a book of this length as not long enough for use for a report. However, in reading through this book, Milner Hall has managed to do an admirable job of condensing extensive amount of research into a form that children will find accessible. Additionally, the book does not lean in one direction or the other. It allows the reader to form their own conclusions and to explore further the possibility that life exists beyond earth.
After reading through this book, I would recommend it for any school or classroom library.
Kid Lit Frenzy, February 22, 2012
Kelly Milner Halls has written an accessible non-fiction text which delicately balances speculation, research, anecdote, and cultural reference. ALIEN INVESTIGATION has plenty of "what-if" factor that will invite younger readers to consider thoughtfully the possibilities of spacecraft and life on other planets.
Halls gently invites the reader to visit the book and to consider these possibilities making no claim for any of the inclusions in the book to be "true."
As a multimodal text, ALIEN INVESTIGATION is pleasing to the eye with its deep blacks and mysterious greens. Some pages look like File Tabs wherein Halls, an expert researcher and careful reporter, digs deeper into the subject by calling up scientists, military officials, screenplay writers, even a Kentucky librarian with an anecdotal account of a childhood experience.
In fewer than 70 pages, Halls is able to break down sightings over a continuum of 60 year, offering sites and scenarios. Further, Halls offers the types of spacecraft reported and how they have been credited or seemingly discredited by larger governing bodies.
Interwoven into the text is the story of an alien who boards a ship with a crew and makes his way to earth, a gentle suggestion that how we receive the idea of life on other planets is indicated by how we treat the very subject in our everyday conversations.
ALIEN INVESTIGATION will be an immediate hit with younger boy readers already interested in space and aliens. Halls, like Loree Griffin Burns and Tanya Lee Stone, are leading the way as authors ready to be included in the new focus on non-fiction standards in the ELA classroom.
Halls has already made herself welcome with a number of engaging titles. ALIEN INVESTIGATION is another "can't-miss" for Halls, an author who should be celebrated for her dedication to process and her attention to the needs of younger non-fiction readers.
Feb. 4, 2012 -- Five Stars from teacher Paul Hankins at Goodreads
Kelly Milner Halls' Alien investigation : Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens allows that there are people who believe [unconditionally] in life on other planets and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and people who do not, and then sets out to look at existing evidence, providing a very balanced view of the subject for readers on either side of the issue.
Among chapters that include dozens of examples of described sightings and encounters are interviews with credible sources that provide readers with information that could add to these debates, such as physicist Stanton Friedman, who believes in the likelihood of long-distance space travel, and government black programs expert Michael Scraft, who would write off many UFO sightings as having been classified tests of advanced military crafts.
The design of the book allows for pictures that illustrate the subject, whether the 'ball lightning' that has been confused for an alien spaceship, or archival photos of places where aliens were seen and the people who saw them. Another clever design feature is the report tab that denotes the interview pages. The end matter is as thorough as Halls' other books, and includes a glossary, source notes, sources, a bibliography, photo acknowledgements and a list of UFO organizations and festivals for readers interested in the subject.
The even-handedness of the subject makes this a book that will find a home in any library, and one that is a natural draw for reluctant readers.
February 5, 2012 -- Librarian Betsy Fraser, Reality Rules
Yl'lek
This sketch of Yl'lek didn't make it into the final design of ALIEN INVESTIGATION, and he's evolved a little. But he'll guide you from chapter to chapter and introduce you to a fictional troop of aliens out to explore a strange planet called Earth.
This drawing didn't QUITE make it into the book -- well, let's just say it evolved into something a little different. So did the fictional narrative beside it. Does it give you a few hints about what WILL be in the book? Mmmhmm. : )
