The Stray

A family encounters a stray on their walk; since he has neither a collar nor a tag, they take him home. What the narrator never mentions—but readers can instantly see—is that the stray is a pet-size alien whose spaceship has crashed to earth. Grub, as the family names him, seems comfy in his new home, taking a shine to the toaster and unleashing gravity-suspending powers: soon, the kids are flying around the living room, and a neighbor’s wading pool is turned into a multistory waterslide. But Grub grows homesick, and while his adoptive family imagines their new life together (Dad pictures the alien hanging his head out his truck window, just like a dog), they do the right thing: one of their “FOUND” signs reaches the mother ship, and Grub is spirited away. Ruttan (I Am a Thief!) ends her solo debut on an abrupt note (“Maybe we’ll see him again sometime!”), but her digitally enhanced charcoal and pastel drawings have heightened textures and an inner radiance that infuse the everyday settings with a lovely fairy tale quality. One can almost believe that extraterrestrial magic really can happen in the most ordinary of places. Ages 3–7. [em]Agent: Rachel Orr, Prospect Agency. (May) [/em]