“Sherry lives next door. She says she comes from outer space. I don’t believe her.” These are the opening lines of my new book, MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE, published at Amazon.
Illustrated with colorful anime style art by Paige Arnold, this graphic picture book is the rebirth of one of my first books for children, now rewritten and newly illustrated. Originally published by Franklin Watts, 1981, with illustrations by Carol Nicklaus, it has been long out of print.
MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE is an easy-read story about two little girls on a trip to outer space in a cardboard box rocket ship. It was my first published fiction book. In the early 1980s I took it to all my author visits at schools and it was by far my most popular book. I read it aloud to auditoriums full of children, and by the time I got to the third page, you could hear a pin drop in the room as they listened eagerly to find out what happened next. While most of them understood that the trip was pretend, there were always a few who wanted to believe that the girls really did go to outer space.
After selling 10,000 copies, the book went out of print and the rights reverted to me. I tried to get the story republished, but had no luck. Time went by and I went on to other books. Many changes took place in the publishing world, especially in illustration. The original illustrations for MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE by Carol Nicklaus, charming cartoon-like drawings with limited background color, now look old-fashioned. I knew that if the book were republished, it would need to be re-illustrated to appeal to present-day children.
Another big change since 1981 has been the development of the computer and the possibility of self-publishing. I considered republishing MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE myself . (In the course of turning some of my other out-of-print books into Kindle e-books I had already learned how to format book files on my computer (I use InDesign) and how to upload the files to publish the books on Amazon.) However, I still needed new illustrations for MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE and my own illustration style, cut-paper art, wasn’t suitable.
Meanwhile, my granddaughter Paige was developing as an excellent artist. Her personal style, inspired by anime art, seemed perfect for the book. So, two years ago, in the summer before Paige’s junior year in high school, I asked her if she would be interested in drawing the illustrations for the book. She liked the idea and said yes, not realizing how much work it would be. The style of the new book would be a graphic picture book with dialog in speech bubbles. I rewrote the text to fit the new format. Paige created the two characters for the book—Sherry and the narrator (who doesn’t have a name in the story)—and I helped her develop a dummy, or storyboard, for the book. Paige did all the drawings for the book on her i-pad. The color choices and details in the drawings are all hers. Overall, my role in the book was writer, editor, art director, book designer, publisher.)
During the next two years Paige worked on the book drawings when she could—between homework, swim practice and meets, piano lessons, college visits and college applications, and all the other activities of a busy teenager—and we met periodically on Zoom to discuss the progress of the book. Little by little the book came together, the final pieces not falling into place until after Paige’s graduation from high school in June 2023.
Finally, at the beginning of July we made one last check to make sure everything was in place. The book was finished! I uploaded the file to Amazon and clicked the button to publish. A day later an email came: “Congratulations! Your paperback “My Friend From Outer Space” is now published on Amazon!”
We did it!
After 42 years MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE is available again, both as an e-book and a 32-page paperback. Paige and I are thrilled. Publishing a book never seems quite real until you can hold it in your hand and turn the pages. Paige is proud to be a published illustrator. I am so glad to see the book in print again. I look forward to reading it aloud to children at my upcoming author visits to schools.
“Now do you believe I come from outer space?” asks Sherry.
“Yes!”
The end.
