Fallen Spaceman, The (Paperback)

by Lee Harding (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
After crashing to earth, a giant spacesuit starts a wild rampage through a forest, endangering the lives of its small human-like alien and a curious boy who crawled aboard. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Baby-Preschool
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: Yearling (January 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553156942
• ISBN-13: 978-0553156942
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,848,671 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Son loved this book, June 9, 2008

By	booklover "booklover" (ohio) - See all my reviews

My 7 year old son read this book from start to finish the day I gave it to him. He said it made him sad sometimes and happy sometimes and he really enjoyed reading it. He usually only reads a little bit at a time so I could tell that he really liked this one.

5.0 out of 5 stars Alien Encounter Written with Pure Poetry and Intense Emotion, May 20, 2002

By	Shanshad "shanachie_shadowfax" (Discworld) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fallen Spaceman (Hardcover)

This story is magic, and it's not even fantasy. My mother read this to me when I was about twelve years old and I still remember the musical cadences of the narrative that pulled me into the story, that made it an expressive and powerful tale. On the surface, this story has a plot that is similar to the one of E.T. An alien worker, mistakenly left behind by his comrades, is abandoned on Earth and must communicate with a human boy in order to survive and get back home. But that's very much on the surface.

The narrative is split in POV, balanced between Tyro, the "fallen Spaceman" in his gigantic space suit. And the humans who encounter him, most significantly a young boy Erik, whose fate ends up tangled with Tyro's when he accidently becomes trapped in the damaged suit. This is a powerful, optimistic tale about understanding and hope for the future, but its also an excellent SF story. Descriptions of the enormous spacesuit and how it is used, the difficulty of breathing the air of this planet, small peices of technology are interwoven into the story without it ever losing its poetry or emotive qualities. Most importantly, its done in such a way that a child of eight years or older should be able to enjoy the story.

The narrative never falls into the trap of "dumbing down" for its audience, but does a remarkable job of remaining on target while still appealing to mature audiences. I highly recommend this book as a read-aloud. Parents and children will both enjoy the experience. The particular copy I have also contains line illustrations by John and Ian Schoenherr that aide in visualizing the story. It's not an easy book to find, but if you come across it, please give it a try--this is a treasure whether or not you are a SF fan.

Happy Reading! ^_^
--shanshad