A First Guide to Space Creatures

Faiz Kermani
Lulu Publishing (2010)
ISBN 9780557748792
Reviewed by Evan Weldon (age 9) for Reader Views (1/11)

“A First Guide to Space Creatures” by Faiz Kermani is a humorous guide about creatures from around the galaxy that are under threat because of industrial pollution, inter-galactic travel, war, hunting, and other alien activities.  The book categorizes creatures into Furry, Small but Greedy, Smelly, Definitely Weird, On the Move, Endangered, and Very Dangerous.  Under each category there are details about three or four creatures and a color drawing of each one.

My favorite creature was the moonrock hound, an endangered species.  It used to be an alien pet but when the aliens left, they abandoned the hounds.  The alien government has put out advertisements looking for beings to adopt the hounds.  Unfortunately, it is kind of hard to find new owners for them because the moonrock hounds need to be walked seven times per night, they like to live in very cold and dark homes, and due to their huge diet they produce a green gas with a pungent and irritating odor.  Do you want to adopt one?

This is a very funny book and must have been a lot of fun for the author to write and to illustrate.  The names of the creatures were hilarious gobbledygook that sounded funny but made no sense.  Some creatures seemed based on earth animals.  For example the blue glod looked somewhat like a dog with an elephant trunk.

I would recommend “A First Guide to Space Creatures” to people who have a good sense of humor and who enjoy reading books about space creatures.  I think all my friends would like it.  After reading this book, I think people will be inspired to draw alien creatures.