#848 of 1001 · November 26, 2022

Imagine a happening as marvelous as contact between our world and an extraterrestrial life form. Now imagine it happens right under your nose and you miss it entirely. How could this be? David Wiesner’s hilarious Mr. Wuffles! shows one possible scenario. The alien explorers here are a squadron of five minuscule beings who arrive in a metallic flying saucer. They are soon menaced by a common house cat, a formidable predator with the undignified name “Mr. Wuffles”. The tiny team of explorers discovers an insect community—consisting of three ants and a ladybug—whose cave-painting-style wall art tells of countless battles with the terrifying feline beast. The tiny heroes must work together to return to evade the deadly clutches of Mr. Wuffles and return the crew to their spacecraft in one piece. Wiesner conveys the story through a mostly-wordless narrative, the only dialogue coming from the human owner, oblivious to the science-fictional goings-on. The aliens themselves populate their speech bubbles with impenetrable geometric glyphs. Watercolor and India ink in comic-style panels bring the delightful action sequences to life. #cat #alien #aliens #spaceship #ant #ladybug #insect #insects #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks