Alien Tomato, a charming book on imagination and possibility

Alien Tomato is the kind of simple children’s illustrated book that gives a loving wink and nudge to the early adopters while playfully teasing those who are slow to accept. What’s great about the book is that its story is as equally entertaining for anyone on any side of the argument. Perhaps it’s best if we explain the plot of the book, then that description might be easier to draw parallels to children or even adults in your respective circles.

Alien Tomato is a silly title, isn’t it? It’s a typical day in the garden and the vegetables are just relaxing doing their thing. Suddenly all the radishes, carrots, peas and more see a bright shiny, red, round object shoot through the sky. The round ball-like object lands in the garden and they’re initially mystified by what it could be.

It certainly looks like a tomato, but it’s much too perfectly round. They kick around ideas until the broccoli comes up with the only logical conclusion that the object must be an alien tomato. The other vegetables come in line and agree with that conclusion. It’s only the mole who is left screaming at the sky that it is just a ball. Specifically, it’s just a red ball that’s erroneously landed in the garden and mole just can’t believe all of the fuss that’s being made over it.

The vegetables question whether or not it’ll zap them with its laser guns. Sensing that their new friend isn’t hostile they introduce themselves and proceed to honor it and name her Allie. They throw a party for Allie, make a crown out of leaves and treat the red, round friend as a non-communicative superior. All the while the mole is getting more and more frustrated. He never received a party and is simply embarrassed to share the garden with such simple minded creatures who would believe the story that they’ve created. Mole gets so jealous of Allie that he kidnaps the red, round friend and takes her down into its tunnel. It’s only then that the red friend shows his true colors and lives up to the title of the book, Alien Tomato.

Alien Tomato is a very clever book. It never boils with laughter, but it’s consistently entertaining and will produce smiles from readers aged four through eight. The vast majority of the pages in the book are full color from corner to corner. The text is used sparingly with the conversation between the vegetables and the mole driving the story. Alien Tomato has text that’s on par for ages six and up to read the book by themselves. However, those kids who are two years on either side of that will still enjoy Alien Tomato and the lesson about not judging a book by its cover.

 That is also an apt lesson for the book. It looks like it will demo younger, but it doesn’t. The story is advanced enough for those young elementary aged readers to experience the book solo and let their imagination get the better of them the next time that they see a stray ball in the yard or on the playground.

Alien Tomato is by Kristen Schroeder with illustrations by Mette Engell.