INVADER FROM MARS

The arrival of a new baby elicits joy…and uncertainty.

When Micah (a boy with light-brown skin that is between his mother’s lighter shade and his father’s darker skin tone) sees a sonogram picture on his refrigerator, he thinks it looks like an alien. His parents explain they are having a new baby, and Micah seeks out advice from older Cousin Maxwell. Maxwell, who is brown-skinned, confirms Micah’s alien suspicions and shares the telltale signs for determining for sure whether the baby is an extraterrestrial, including the presence of green skin. When baby Lily is born, illustrations depict her with green skin, which no one but Micah and Cousin Maxwell seems to notice. The internal logic of the story falls apart when Micah and his mom bring Lily to his school for Show-and-Share. “ ‘Why would anyone bring a weird baby in for Show-and-Share?’ said a particularly rude classmate. Micah froze. Lily did not.” An accompanying illustration shows green-skinned Lily shooting the light-skinned classmate with lasers from her eyes and vaporizing him. Everyone sees this, so Lily’s alienlike status can’t be chalked up to big-brother jitters enabled by a cousin. Though anxiety surrounding a new sibling is a perennially popular topic, and the big-headed, cartoonish characters cut endearing figures in Obuhanych’s digitally finished watercolor, colored pencil, and collage illustrations, this tale will leave many little ones perplexed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

The hard truth is that this book’s twist doesn’t quite land.