Halloween is the time for sharing spooky stories with our kids, but many of our favorite shows and films are far too scary to share with our little ones until they are almost adults themselves. For fans of The X-Files, however, Quirk Books is here to help with a new kid-friendly picture book, The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird by Kim Smith, that is perfect for reading aloud on a spooky October night.
Earth Children Are Weird gives us Mulder and Scully (Fox and Dana) as kids around eight years old. The kids are having a campout in Dana’s backyard with her dog Buster and, at the start of the night, Dana reads a scary story aloud and spooks Fox whose imagination quickly takes hold. As on the show, Fox immediately starts seeing strange and paranormal things all around the yard, but with her handy flashlight, Dana is able to show him that they are nothing more sinister than the porchlight or a squeaky tire swing. But this is The X-Files, so perhaps not all is as it seems to the young skeptical Scully?
The book is one of a series of picture books from Quirk that takes classic properties and converts them to kid-friendly stories. Home Alone has already been released, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is out on Halloween, and Back to the Future is scheduled for publication in April 2018. All the books are illustrated by Kim Smith, whose cute cartoon style is perfect at translating what are often more adult stories into bright and bold kid-friendly illustrations. In fact, I have already compiled a mental list of other shows and films I would love to see given the same treatment.
I absolutely fell in love with Earth Children Are Weird. Kid Mulder and Scully make the perfect protagonists for a spooky picture book, the art is utterly adorable, and even my son, who is both a reluctant reader and easily scared, thoroughly enjoyed it and read it to himself after I had initially read it aloud.
We have a paperback copy of The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird to give away. To enter, fill in the form below. The competition is open until 11.59PM PT on Friday, October 13th (coincidentally, Agent Mulder’s birthday) and is open globally. Good luck!
This contest has now closed.
Congratulations to our winner, John Printon.
Hah, I wasn’t sure if this was too much of a gimmick to consider for the library, but that “aliens are coming” picture sold me. I think even people (especially kids) who know nothing of the X-files could enjoy it.
And personally I never knew how much I wanted a Mulder-and-Scully-as-kids story until now.