MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE: A Favorite Book Reborn

“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 on Amazon MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE.

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 dialogue 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. 

TA DAH! New Book! MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE

                                    HOT OFF THE PRESS!

MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE

By Caroline Arnold

Illustrations by Paige Arnold

Published by Caroline Arnold (Amazon) July 2023

ISBN 9798399935614 Paperback $9.99

ASIN B0CB9BXWLC  Kindle ebook $6.99

“Sherry lives next door. She says she comes from outer space. I don’t believe her.”

In this graphic picture book illustrated with colorful anime style art by Paige Arnold, two girls travel to the planet Tinbambam in their cardboard box space ship. But do they really go to outer space? Or are they just pretending?

This is a new version of MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE originally published by Franklin Watts, 1981, (OP), now rewritten and newly illustrated.

I am so excited to have this book available again after 43 years! Children will always like to pretend. It is a story that will never go out of date.

Get your copy now!

CAROLINE ARNOLD'S WISCONSIN CONNECTION

 

Caroline Arnold, author of The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers (Boyds Mills Press, 2006), grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spent her summers in northern Wisconsin at Camp Bovey, near Solon Springs.  Stories of the Hodag, a scary beast with a head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur and tail of an alligator, were told around evening campfires and are among Caroline's earliest memories.

Camp Bovey is operated by the East Side Neighborhood Services in Minneapolis, where Caroline’s father, Lester Scheaffer, was director from 1948 to 1966. He founded Camp Bovey, then called Camp Hodag, in 1949. Caroline first went to Camp with her family, and then as she got older as a camper and a counselor. Camp Hodag, was first used as an outpost camp by Camp Nebagamon, a boys’ camp on Lake Nebagamon, in the 1930s and 1940s.  Tales of the Hodag are also told at Camp Nebagamon.
Caroline remembers summer trips from Camp Bovey to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, to see the original home of the Hodag, and where a giant statue of the Hodag greets visitors as they enter town. One of those trips coincided with Lumberjack Days and the chance to see log rolling, tree climbing and other lumberjack feats.

Stories of the Hodag and the lumberjacks are a regular feature at the Camp Bovey campfires. Each teller gives his or her own twist to the stories. One of Caroline’s favorite stories tells how the Hodag helped the lumberjacks to get rid of a mean boss man.  In her first children’s book about the Hodag, The Terrible Hodag, published in 1989, Caroline retold this story. The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, is an original tale in which the lumberjacks help the Hodag. “I wanted to turn the tables and give the lumberjacks a chance to return the favor to the Hodag.”
Caroline began writing books more than forty years ago when her children were young.  Since then she has published more than one hundred and seventy books.  Most of them are about animals and the environment. “My childhood experiences in the outdoors in northern Wisconsin developed my love of the natural world. Whether I write fiction or nonfiction, that passion for nature is the source of my ideas.”

Caroline Arnold now lives in Los Angeles, California. In 2015, she visited Camp Bovey with her family so her children and grandchildren could enjoy "rowing, fishing, swimming in the sun" and hear about the Hodag in the north woods of Wisconsin, as she did when she was their age.

Caroline and her brothers, 1951

Review of PLANTING A GARDEN IN ROOM 6 in Bayviews

This very nice review of PLANTING A GARDEN IN ROOM 6: From Seeds to Salad was published on the Bayviews blog of the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern Californis (ACL) last summer.

As school gardens increase in popularity, so too should the number of books about the topic. Arnold’s well-documented kindergarten classroom garden features lots of action-packed photographs and smooth, flowing narration about how a garden works. The engaging photos demonstrate how to prepare the soil, add worms, choose a variety of plants, and how the various plants grow, while the narration provides additional details and explanations. Useful for any school (or home) with gardens, or anyone curious to see what taking care of a garden involves.

Joshua Rees, Daly City PL