Review
Outtasight! An extraterrestrial lands in the night. Strange beeps and a blazing light awaken household appliances. The house glances skyward as does the family pup, who'd been snoozing in the doghouse. The light turns out to be a UFO, out of which strolls a metallic, robot dog with a glowing red nose....This silly, quirky tale's simple rhyme scheme reads and scans well; minimal text and lots of white space permit focus on characters and action. The cartoon illustrations are lively, energetic, and expressive, and readers should enjoy the escapades of both appliances and pup. Make space on shelves for this one. -- Kirkus Reviews ― 3/1/20
Two dogs—one real, one robotic—star in this “visitor from outer space” frolic by Geisel Honor Book author Twohy. On a starry summer’s night, a yellow canine sleeps half out of his doghouse. A bunch of round eyes can be seen in one of the human house’s windows. The eyes belong to the Brave Little Toaster-esque kitchen appliances, all of them up because they sense something strange is coming. A distant light turns into a big yellow meteoroid that lands in the backyard. In classic ’50s B movie–style, a UFO touches down, and a visitor descends the ramp. It’s a very shiny robo-dog, who greets the appliances, ignoring the excited dog....The focus here is on the dog’s feelings: fright, joy, feeling left out and let down, and then more joy at finally being included. The rhyming text—with usually no more than four-to-six exclamatory words per double-page spread—and often-explosive action, boldly rendered in watercolor and felt pen, make this a great find for early readers. Rollicking and joyous. -- Booklist *Starred Review* ― March 2020
When a UFO descends from an inky sky to land in a dog’s backyard one night, the yellow pup believes it has found a new friend: the robot that trots out is canine-like, though its snout does feature a mysteriously glowing red ball. But the robot couldn’t care less about its earthly counterpart (“ ‘Can we play?’/Walks away”); it’s looking for the home’s bevy of instantly familiar electronic appliances....Twohy’s cheery, buoyant space oddity taps into fantasies of inanimate objects coming to life, while the couplet-based text offers emerging readers simple but rollicking rhymes that encourage word recognition. And even the doggy gets its zero-gravity day (or rather, night) thanks to a parting gift. -- Publishers Weekly ― 3/30/2020
What if a creature from outer space resembled one of our favorite pet animals? A distant light in the night sky, loudly beeping as it approaches Earth, brings a scary sight to a pup in his backyard doghouse in this fun and funny tale. Out from the landing UFO comes a space dog....Twohy’s comical drawings are both simple and richly expressive, beautifully expanding the economical rhyming text. Feeling very left out, Pup does eventually get his own special opportunity. VERDICT For general purchase, the book has many laugh-inducing pages for independent readers, listeners, and viewers. –Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston -- School Library Journal
About the Author
Mike Twohy is a Geisel Honor Award–winning author and illustrator of several books for children, including Poindexter Makes a Friend, Outfoxed about which The Horn Book said, “story time audiences will howl with laughter,” Wake Up, Rupert!, and Mouse and Hippo, which the School Library Journal called “a story time hit.” He has been a longtime contributor of cartoons to The New Yorker. He lives with his wife, cats, and yellow Lab in Berkeley, California.
