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INTRODUCTION:
Just Visiting!
Did you ever look at your family, your classroom, your world and think, "Good grief! What am I doing here? I must have come from somewhere else!"
I suspect we all have that feeling at some time in our lives-- the feeling that we don't fit in, don't belong, that we're so out of place it's as if we come from another planet. Which may be one reason that so many of us are fascinated by stories about people (or creatures, or bug-eyed monsters) that do come from other planets. We can imagine exactly how they feel!
This is especially true when we're kids, and the world hasn't yet had a chance to squeeze our own weirdness out of us. We may even like to think, "Ah! These are my people! Maybe they've come to take me home at last."
That's why I thought it would be fun to collect a book full of stories about alien visitors. Which is what you are holding now. In the pages that follow, you will find stories about aliens who have come to our planet for all sorts of purposes. Some are fierce, some friendly, some just plain weird. Some of the authors of these stories, like Ray Bradbury, turn the entire idea on its head, and show us something different altogether. Others, like Sherwood Smith, talk about how aliens might react to us. Still others, such as Lou Grinzo, discuss how we might react to the aliens.
Fourteen stories.
Fourteen ways to think about alien visitors.
If, like me, you believe the day will come when we find ourselves face to face with visitors from another world, stories like these are not only fun to read, they also offer a way to think in advance about how we're going to feel, and act, when those aliens finally arrive.
Not a bad idea to do some advance thinking for what may be the most important day in the history of the planet.
So there you are. We've got a spaceship full of aliens waiting to meet you... and it's ready to land, just as soon as you turn the page.
(signed)
Bruce Coville
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