Joan Staehle Illustrated by Bob Staehle
"It was a regular crummy old day...except that it was Saturday...and my parents were still sleeping...and a slurping purplish space alien was in the tree house in my backyard...and..."
THE DAY ZOOMBOP THE SPACE ALIEN CAME TO MY HOUSE begins with a funny space alien dropping in for a visit, cascades into a day packed with adventures, and concludes with a refreshing change of attitude.
This colorful book is more than just a good read, though: it also includes 25 special activities for fostering reading proficiency.
Zoombop wants to visit your house, too. Invite him in, and you'll be glad you did.
Joan (Ramsier) Staehle spent her childhood in rural Ohio. She taught preschool and elementary school for twenty years, taught secondary English, and taught foreign graduate students English as a Second Language. Joan's poems and articles have been published in these (and other) publications: Horizons, Sharing, Instructor Magazine, Scope, The Tampa Tribune, St. Pete Times, Advisor Magazine, Home Life, Purpose, Key to Christian Education and The Lutheran Digest. Joan is also the author of a book of poems, OPTIONAL NAMEPLATE (available at the Independent Bookstore on the Web.)
Bob Staehle spent his childhood in urban New Jersey. He did commissioned artwork for several years and is now a police captain who has served as a public information officer and been a featured speaker for the Florida Attorney General’s Office. Bob was awarded a National Public Service Award by the governor of Florida and was also the recipient of the Outstanding Staff Award from the University of South Florida. Bob values children and uses his imagination to illustrate stories from a perspective children easily relate to.
Joan and Bob are parents and grandparents. They live in Florida where they are working on their second book in the Zoombop series.
"I went straight to our backyard and climbed the ladder to my tree house.
Some days I pretend that my tree house is a nest up in the branches of the world's tallest tree. I pretend I am up above the rest of the world and my sharp eyes can see everything everyone does everywhere. (No one can see me up in my tree house, of course.)
But right then it was not time for pretending. It was time for thinking. I thought, and thought, and thought. I thought about those two enormous eyes peering out of our mailbox."
