Beegu

Product Information

Alexis Deacon graduated from the University of Brighton, where he studied Illustration, gaining a first class honours degree.

I would be interested to know why Beegu was travelling alone in the first place, as she appears to be a child, and how she ended up crashing onto Earth. I looked through some books I had packed away to go up to the attic today, they’re all coming back to the book shelves, this one is lovely! She is scared, lonely and confused and begins to wander around the near by city in hope to find some friends to care for her. It has scope to be studied in drama too for children to consider her emotions and develop empathy towards her.

She retells her Earth experience to her parents describing the earth creatures as big and unfriendly “but there were some smaller ones who seemed hopeful”. The rest of the story offers good lessons on friendship and parental teaching as Beegu is redeemed in the end.

The images of Beegu are a great aid to the readers in seeing just how different Beegu is and why he is having such difficulty in our world making friends. I am likely to remember Beegu and sad that I’m one of the oldsters Beegu will not make a point of fondly remembering.

The illustrations are brilliant and therefore useful to look at with children because they link clearly with the story and can express emotions to children. In the end the Alien finds their mother and explains how earth people are cruel and rejecting but suggested there was still an opportunity for change. On the other hand, she does understand the important things, and when her parents eventually do rescue her, she informs them that "Earth creatures were mostly big and unfriendly, but there were some small ones who seemed hopeful. She tells them all about how the big Earth creatures were unfriendly but the small ones seemed hopeful.

Inspiring children’s creative writing, they can describe and create the planet where Beegu originates and describe new planets Beegu can discover with her friends. She tries to comunicate and form friendships although she is often pushed away, due to her being misunderstood and different. There is an illustration of Beegu cuddled up in a warm cardboard box with some puppies which is simply gorgeous. The story is about her trying to find her way back home travelling through a city coming across what life on Earth is like.

These questions could be explored with the class a discussion and/or as an opportunity for the class to create their own narrative for the reasons behind these remaining puzzles.