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By: Bethany Porter, Collections Development Specialist.

World UFO Day was earlier this month, so of course members of the OverDrive Education Team wanted to celebrate! Many of us used to be children’s librarians or school librarians before joining OverDrive, so where there is an excuse to pull out our silly hats and craft supplies, we take it!

The meal was at least as fun as the crafts. Why not plan a UFO-themed lunch with your students when the school year start? Consider serving:

• Intergalactic Tacos – extra points if you can find green tortillas!
• Fruit Rocket Skewers – a perfect, colorful, sweet treat.
• Moon Pies – my favorite! (there are TONS of dessert options. We’re lucky enough to have an artsy person on staff who treated us to Roswell “Do You Believe” cookies, as well as someone else who brought Martian Dirt Cake.
• Interstellar Soda – made even more exciting with colorful “moon rocks” (ice cubes).
We shared our own personal UFO stories (one time my family was vacationing in Michigan, and we ran into an Alien Abduction convention at the hotel.).

If you’re feeling extra ambitious, you can read from an Alien/Space/UFO-themed book. Here are some of my favorites:

• Spaceships & Rockets – DK Readers are wonderful, especially for that early reader K-3 level. This one is a perfect nonfiction introduction to Spacecraft, and is a good way to start discussions about the difference between a UFO, an airplane, a spaceship, a shooting star, etc.

• My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville – I loved Bruce Coville when I was in that elusive, hard-to-please 3rd-5th grade range. This series is just as delightful as I remember in his early 90s Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. Even better, My Teacher is an Alien is the start of a series, so if your little extraterrestrials like this, you’ll be able to keep them entertained for a while!

• See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng – You’ll be charmed by 11-year-old Alex Petroski and his dog, Carl Sagan. Alex is obsessed with space, and is working to record his life on his iPod so that it can be released into space to show other lifeforms what life on Earth is like. See You in the Cosmos has been compared to books like Wonder by R. J. Palacio, and may be a good addition to Middle Grade collections looking for examples of compassionate characters.

• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey – I know this one has already had its day, but it’s practically a YA classic now. I listened to the audiobook of this series, and I was glad to have listened during the middle of the day, instead of reserving these ones for late-night reading. This series is an excellent introduction to the darker, horror side of Science Fiction for teens.

Partners can check out our other UFO-themed books on Marketplace:

Finally, I did mention how much I enjoy silly crafts, right?? We made alien-eye headbands. Here are a few of the attendees! (I’m the tall one in the middle).

Have suggestions for more good books? Let me know in the comments!