The Boy Who Went to Mars

When Mom has to go out of town, Stanley decides to blast off to outer space. But who’s this small martian returning in his place who doesn’t follow earthling rules?

On the day that Stanley’s mom takes a work trip overnight, Stanley decides to leave planet Earth. But when his spaceship touches down again in the backyard, a young martian crawls out, proclaiming to Stanley’s dad that residents of Mars don’t wash before dinner, eat their vegetables, or brush their teeth. It just so happens that martians tend to act out in school, too. . . . With whimsy and sympathy for a familiar dilemma, Simon James ushers us into the coping fantasies of an imaginative, sensitive kid — and shares the pleasure of his sheepish reunion with a most accepting family.

Simon James is an award-winning author and illustrator of many picture books, including George Flies South, Little One Step, and Leon and Bob, which was named a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year. Simon James lives in England.