Leah A. Haley

Parents are always looking for picture books to help their children adjust to new situations: their first visit to the dentist, the death of a pet, or the dawning realization that daddy is going to prison (yes, there is a picture book called, "A Visit to the Big House.") There are picture books produced for virtually every new experience that can a child can encounter: airplanes, dentists, potty training, death; there are even picture books especially for children with alcoholic parents. “Ceto’s New Friends” is a strange book
even among this rarefied genre: it is intended to help children experiencing their first alien abduction. In the story, a little boy and girl meet a typical “grey” alien, Ceto, and they all play happily together, on Earth and in Ceto’s spaceship. No one is probed, and at the end, the children give Ceto a little marble that looks like Earth to take back to his planet. An alleged abductee herself, Haley wrote “Ceto” to make children feel less frightened if they should meet an alien and be taken aboard a UFO. In actuality, the book seems likely to have entirely the opposite effect…the cover illustration alone is sufficiently nightmare-inducing!… (plus d'informations)