If You Come to Earth

Sophie Blackall's If You Come to Earth is a gentle, curious picture book for 5 year olds, written as a child's letter to a visitor from outer space.

What happens

The letter starts with the basics. We live near a big sun and a tiny moon, and ours is the greeny-blue planet. The green and brown bits are land and the blue stuff is water.

From there it explains life on Earth the way a child would. We live in all kinds of homes and all kinds of families. Everybody has a body, but every body is different. We get dressed every day, even when we don't feel like it!

The best bits are the funny little asides. You can't drink the sea because it's too salty. Fish can swim but they can't walk. If he had to choose, the letter-writer would be a bird. There's a list of invisible things that includes gravity, germs and the smell of old socks (who knew?).

It doesn't only do the easy stuff, either. It says some people have more food than others. It says sometimes we hurt each other, and it's better when we help each other. Near the end it says, very simply, that we don't know where we go when we die. That line may bring a question or two at bedtime, so it's good to know it's there.

Then the letter finishes with an invitation to come and stay in the writer's room, and a list of questions for the alien. How many eyes do you have? Do you have any pets? When is your birthday?

Those questions are a lovely place to stop and chat. What would your child ask a visitor from space? What would they tell them first?

At the back there's a note from the author about how the book came about. She talked to children all over the world and to one class in Brooklyn, and the boy who writes the letter is based on a real boy called Quinn.

If you've got a little one who asks a LOT of questions about the world, this is a warm, reassuring book to share.

What to read next

If they love the feeling of the whole world in one book, Brother Sun, Sister Moon is a song of thanks for the sun, the moon, the wind, the water and everything living. It's a prayer, based on words written by Saint Francis long ago, so it suits families who'd enjoy that.