Presenting an excerpt from new children’s picture book The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot, a futuristic update on the old fable, written by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by Mark Fearing, out this week from Schwartz & Wade.
At their Ma’s encouragement, Bork, Gork, and Nklxwyz (try saying that one), strike off on their own to find their own place in the universe. The three little aliens are happily settling into their new homes when the infamous Big Bad Robot flies in to crack and smack and whack their houses down! A chase across space ensues as the three little aliens search for a way — any way — to thwart the monstrous robot.
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot comes complete with a labeled guide to the Milky Way on the endpapers.
Click the images for larger, readable versions. (Warning! They’re quite large.)
Margaret McNamara is the author of How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, called “illuminating” by Family Fun magazine. She is also the author of the popular Robin Hill School early reader series.
Mark Fearing has created award-winning editorial cartoons, animated shorts that have appeared on Nickelodeon and G4, and was a production manager for Walt Disney Television Animation. He is also the illustrator of The Book that Eats People by John Perry.
No offense intended to the author, but doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of a book for this age group to make one of the character’s names unpronouncable? Would you not expect that this book is meant to be read aloud to small children? What are the parents supposed to do when they get to the name, Nklxwyz?
Hi Mio — Thanks for the comment. I thought parents and kids might have fun with the name Nklwcyz, and would enjoy pronouncing it however they wished. I got the idea for Nklwcyz’s name from Mr. Mxyzptlk, a name I couldn’t pronounce then and still can’t. It caught my imagination as a kid: this is my little homage.
This books looks adorable. I’m getting a copy to read with my 4 year old son.
Nklwcyz’s name is obviously pronounced Nklwcyz.
Kids love that kind of stuff. I used to read the comic book adventures of a strange little creature in Spirou or Tintin when I was a kid, and I loved it. (I unfortunately can’t remember the name – all I rememebr is that it had X’s and no vowels). I’d say the unpronouncability of the name is a feature, not a bug.