Customer Reviews

Ceto's New Friends

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I reviewed the first edition of this book when it was published. This is a summary of that review.

What's wrong with this children's story?

We can ignore issues related to the reality (or lack thereof) of alien abductions. "Ceto's New Friends" has greater problems than that.

The fundamental problem with this story is that it encourages children to go away with strangers. In an era where we are hyper-sensitive to children's encounters with strangers and to the hazards thereof, "Ceto's New Friends" sends a significant counter-message. Rather than be wary of strangers, "Ceto's..." sends the message that strangers will teach children all sorts of neat things (in addition to talking with their eyes, Ceto teaches Annie and Seth how to float and fly on their own) and will give them gifts. According to the story, these are good things.

Who among us would willingly tell our children to go away with strangers, that strangers met on the street will teach them great secrets and give them cool gifts, that cooperating with strangers is a Good Thing?

I don't know any parent who would willingly do such a thing, yet Leah Haley's children's book sends exactly this message.

Regardless of the reality of alien abductions, this book is flawed and could actually put children at risk. Children reading this book could get the wrong message that strangers are OK to talk to and to accept gifts from. This is hardly the message we want to send our children.

Mrs. Haley is by far the weirdest author I have ever read. Only 20 pages in length, the book is about an alien that visits Earth and abducts two kids. For a books that is written for children ages 4-8, I find it very disturbing.

Even the U.S. Air Force, in their Instruction AFI 10-206 Report warns that people should never approach a landed "unidentified object" referring to a UFO, much less send their children to wander away with the occupants. "Ceto's New Friends" sends a reckless message to our children as well as to their parents. Yes, the artwork in this little book is cute, but how can the author, Leah Haley write to our children about an "alien" who never existed? She has now retracted her "alien abductions" saying they "...never happened". Please do not reward her deceptive behavior by purchasing her book. Buy the book titled "The Art of Close Encounters" (at Amazon) for a book about real aliens from real abductees with beautiful art to boot!

My five year old son is always asking me, "Why do you like Stargate and Star Trek?" and I always tell him, "A lot of people like to imagine what life might be like on other planets, and what it would be like to travel through space, outside our solar system." We've talked about how little we know of the universe, and how we're only now examining the surface of Mars for evidence of water, and why water is important.

I received the book as a gift from a friend who found it amusing, and the illustrations by Lisa Dusenberry are naive, with large-eyed children reminiscent of those 60s paitings of teary-eyed orphan-children.

Though Leah Haley, the author of "Ceto's New Friends," is a believer (who has written other books recounting her own "alien abduction" story), this picture book is a cute, non-scary introduction to the ideas of much science fiction, and reads as a work of fiction.

This book can be a starting off point to talk about "what if?" questions like:

"What do you think aliens would look like?"

"What do you think Ceto's planet looks like?"

"What would you do on another planet?"

"Ceto looks different from Seth and Annie. Do you think they're scared? Do you think Ceto's scared of them?"

"Why are we sometimes afraid of people who look different from us?"

Aliens are everywhere--at least on TV--and kids, from a very early age, do notice our cultural obsession with science fiction. Though one might wish for better science fiction for the picture-book set, this isn't at all a bad example of a genre whose execution rarely lives up to its provocative ideas.

Why do you you insist on portraying all Visitors as wide-eyed peace-loving simpletons? This book is amusing in many ways (like, what is a CPA and why would a CPA write a book about something she clearly has made up?). Nonetheless, this type of liberal "why can't we be friends" propoganda merely assures that your planet is destined for destruction. Why is it that you earth-dwellers will be the only ones surprised by that event?

This simple text will be reassuring to children who have been visited by a "playmate" like Ceto -- in their dreams or otherwise. The storyline follows the apparent facts about aliens as reported in myriad encounter cases without being scary (Ceto speaks with his eyes and enters his spaceship on a beam of light). With a hint of adventure (Annie and Seth take a ride in Ceto's spaceship), the book will delight beginning readers who are already hearing about aliens on TV, in movies and in books.

For people who have a closed mind, this book will disturb them. For open minded folks, this book may help your child deal with some amazing adventures that most of us may have experienced during childhood. We forget entiire years of our lives. As children, if we reported experiences such as the book describes, we were told that we're making it up and to stop telling lies. But were they lies or the truth from an honest child looking for answers. Get this book for your child and see if they recognize the grey alien in the book. Joe