Arthur's First Sleepover

Arthur Adventure Series

by Marc Brown

D.W. provides excitement to Arthur's campout with his friends by appearing as an alien

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Friendship, Humor, Aliens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Marc Tolon Brown is perhaps best known for his series of children's books about Arthur the aardvark, which was turned into an animated television show on PBS. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award winner, for his role on the television show inspired by his books.

He lives on Martha's Vineyard and in New York City with his wife, Laurie Krasny Brown. He has three children, sons Tolon and Tucker, and daughter Eliza. The names of his two sons have been hidden in all of the Arthur books except for one: Arthur's Tooth.

Reviews

[Set · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgic cartoon before it became political. Fun pictures to a fun story.

[Bailey James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur's First Sleepover is a story of a young boy's adventurous night of having his first sleepover. As the days lead up, Arthur can hardly wait as he begins to set up and invite his friends. He is uninterested when all his friends want to talk about is the supposed alien sighting coming that same evening. The boys have a ball of time in their sleepover tent playing with rubber snakes, eating snacks, and trading baseball cards. They are scared out of their minds when what seems to be an alien coming down to get them shines its light into their tent. They are relieved to find it is just Arthur's little sister with a flashlight. The boys, determined to get her back, create a sign of an alien face and scare her through her window and continue on with their sleepover festivities until the night's end.

Some themes in this book could include the adventures of growing up, friendship, and overcoming fear.

I enjoyed this book because it reminded me of the joys of having sleepovers as a child and all the little fears that go along with the darkness of the night.

I would recommend this book to a child who may be getting ready to have their first sleepover or maybe just as a fun bedtime story.

[Paige Hickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Modern Fantasy
Grade Level: K - 3rd
This book is super cute and all about Arthur's first sleepover. I think children would love reading this book because it is a very interesting and attention grabbing. The illustrator did a great job with making the illustrations very detailed which helped add to the story. I highly recommend this book!

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur was always one of my favourite picture book series and this was one of my favourites. There's not much to the story but the art is great and it's a reminder how much fun it was to stay at a friends house.

[kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brothers and sisters tease each other.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fun, cute book

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute book love Arthur

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aliens!

[Truc 2JZGTE · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! One of my favorites from my childhood! Great illustrations and nice storyline. Fun for the whole family.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️s

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Booklist (Vol. 91, No. 3 (October 1, 1994))

Ages 5-8. Arthur's twentieth adventure is not as tightly plotted as some of the previous stories, but its charm lies in how it mirrors life. Arthur and his friends Butch and Brian are having a rambunctious sleepover in the backyard. Arthur's sister, D. W., suggests there may be some space aliens in the neighborhood and, with flashing lights, manages to scare the boys into thinking the aliens have landed. Not to be outdone, the boys draw their own space monster, giving D. W. a fright. At this point, the Arthur books are a known (and beloved) quantity. The art is energetic, and the story is fun. There always seems to be room for another Arthur.



Horn Book starred (March, 1995)

Elaborate preparations ensue as Arthur and his friends equip their tent for a first back-yard sleepover. Sister D. W. makes the most of newspaper accounts of outer-space aliens, and the boys get even following her predictable trickery. Another good-humored Arthur adventure filled with a treasure of homey details.



Kirkus Reviews (1994)

Arthur's first sleepover is everything it should be: He and his two best friends camp out in the backyard, eat pizza, trade baseball cards, and stay up until all hours. The camp-out also gets an added dose of fun from pranks played on the campers by Arthur's sister, D.W., and the boys' reciprocation. It seems there have been alien sightings in the area and, as much as Arthur protests that he doesn't believe in UFOs, he runs as fast as anyone when he sees flashing lights outside the tent. The culprit is D.W. and her flashlight. Arthur and his friends, in turn, create a frightening green creature out of cardboard to hold up outside of D.W.'s window. She sees it and screams loud enough to wake the house. When Arthur's parents go to check on the boys, they are all sleeping sweetly. Or so the parents think. Yet another diverting adventure from veteran Arthurian Brown (D. W. Rides Again, 1993, etc.).



Publishers Weekly (October 24, 1994)

Brown offers yet another Arthur adventure-his 20th-that entertainingly taps into a familiar childhood experience. Here Arthur is planning his first sleepover party in his tent. Nothing-neither local reports of a spaceship sighting nor best friend Buster's mother's initial reluctance to let her son attend-can dampen the young aardvark's enthusiasm. He even has his camera at the ready lest the aliens drop in, so he can snap pictures and sell them to the National Requirer. But after trading baseball cards, eating pizza and fighting with pillows, Arthur, Buster and the Brain see an eerie light. Is the spaceship about to land? As usual, Brown's art contributes significantly to the fun: the boys make amusing welcome signs for their potential visitors ("We are your friends"; "Please do my homework"); and the vision of the petrified pals running blindly through the yard, tangled in their collapsed tent, will bring on plenty of snickers. Kids definitely like to read about themselves, and Brown knows well how to make Arthur everykid. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)



School Library Journal (October 1994)

K-Gr 3-As Arthur prepares for his first sleepover, his sister D.W. and all his friends are talking about the UFOs that have been sighted in the area. However, Arthur, Buster, and the Brain don't let the rumors interfere with their plans for a backyard adventure in Arthur's tent. In typical fashion, D.W. waits until the boys quiet down for the night and launches her own ``alien'' invasion, and Arthur thinks of a way to beat her at her own game. As usual, Brown treats his subject with warmth and humor, and his illustrations enhance the text through their detail and the visual clues they give readers. This is a title that will have wide appeal.-Mary Ann Bursk, Bucks County Free Library, Levittown, PA

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur was preparing for his very first sleepover, having set up his tent and invited two friends. They were worried about aliens and got a scare, thanks to Arthur's little sister. Cute story and fun illustrations.

[Ashly Schuette]

In Arthur's First Sleepover, Arthur invites his friends the Brain and Buster over for a sleepover. The talk around the town that day is that someone spotted an alien ship in the sky. This leads into the intensity of the boy's sleepover that night in the yard. They are spooked by sounds, footsteps, lights, but they all turn out to be Arthur's family or the pizza delivery guy. Arthur and his friend's stay up most of the night telling stories, and doing everything except for sleep.

The genre of this book is fiction- comedy/humor. The book contains a few sentences per page, and tons of illustrations to describe the passages on each page.

Concepts that could be integrated into the classroom are friendships, rumors, following rules, and gossip.

Students having trouble comprehending texts would find Arthur books useful. Each page is filled with immense detail and helps guide the reader along in the story, even if the text was a little difficult. Traits in this book would be voice and organization.

[Felicity The Magnificent · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Arthur had a sleepover. Buster said his Mom said Buster was too small for sleepovers but he still came. Buster and the Brain were going to a sleepover at Arthur's house. They were looking for aliens. DW was shining a light over them in front of the house like an alien ship, and they all got scared. They ran away messing up their tent and they went to DW's room to put up a sign that said, "Do not disturb." He went back and they made an alien sign and scared DW. DW shouted, "Alien!" so loud that he woke up the whole neighborhood except Buster, the Brain and Arthur. Mother and Father went to see if the boys were asleep, and they were. After Mother and Father went back into the house, they woke up. When Mother and Father were looking to see if the boys were asleep, they were just pretending to sleep. I like this book because Arthur had a sleepover. -by Felicity

[Ting Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is appropriate for ages 7 to 8 in early childhood classrooms. The book “Arthur’s First Sleepover” was written by Marc Brown. It talks about Arthur invited two of his friends Brain and Buster over for a sleepover in his tent and what happens to them during that night. They all have a great time during Arthur’s first sleepover. I like this book because it provides beautiful pictures with vibrant colors. This story is very humor, cute, and mysterious. It also relates to friendships, knowledge, and following rules. It is a fun book for children to practice reading. This book is great for teaching children how the importance of friendship how to apply knowledge to their life.

[Monalisa Johnson-brown]

This is about Arthur and his friends. he wanted to have a sleepover but his friend Buster had a problem but Arthur's mom solved it. They had the sleepover and Arthur's dad brought them pizzas and told them it was bedtime after. They were telling scary stories when they saw a light like it is moving, they thought it was real and ran with the tent and ended up charging into a tree. It was his sister D. W. playing tricks on him. He played one on her and she got so scared that she started to scream.

[Sue Pak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The children are very familiar with Arthur and it's television show. Kids like things that are familiar to them. You can make text-to-text connections with other Arthur books, or text-to-self connections. You can also talk about being kind to others and not pulling pranks.

I recommend the Arthur books to any grade. Kids from kindergarten all the way to fifth will love reading and hearing these books.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book in the Arthur Adventure Series. The anticipation of a sleepover combined with the hijinks that go on during it bring back lots of memories.

It's a good book to read aloud and is very engaging for children. I've read this one a couple of times.

[Shelby Everitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur's First Sleepover is a really cute story about Arthur having his first sleepover while the town says they saw a spaceship. His sister decides to prank him and his friends into thinking there is a real spaceship. However, Arthur gets her back. They all have a great time. I love the Arthur books and would definitely read them to my class.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the more terrifying Arthur books, which sees the town living in fear of an alien invasion. We see Arthur, Buster, and Brain crumbling with the threat of invasion, while D.W., ever the stalwart warrior, laughs in the face of the unknown. You can't really go wrong with Arthur books, I like pretty much all that I have read.

[Kelsey Nauert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur plans his very first sleepover and D.W. is determined to scare the boys. The joke is on her though because they end up scaring her. This can teach students about sibling relationships, that you should be friends not enemies.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a huge fan of the television series, I was greatly disappointed at the lazy and sub-par writing of the books. The illustrations are very poorly done as well (especially if you have older editions of the books). Not good. just watch the show; it's on at seven on PBS every morning.

[Lacey Mcmanaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for teaching how to use prior knowledge. It also useful for showing friendship and sibling bonds. It is a slightly lengthy book, but makes a great read aloud. They students love to make predictions throughout the story.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really like Arthur books or shows or movies or anything to do with Arthur. I don't know what came first, the book or the show, but I'm pretty sure I've watched this story before, so it was easy to make the voices. This is another book Deacon picked up from his school library.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books perfectly captures the classic big brother-pesky little sister relationship! I love that the pictures make Arthur's house, and even this tent, look so cozy. Every page looks like it was drawn by hand.

[Cana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy says: Oh, that naughty D.W. My kids (5yo and 3yo) love Arthur and D.W. books right now.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur has a sleepover outdoors, but beware of aliens! Of course it is just DW scaring them, and Arthur and his pals scare her back with their own alien.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoyed reading the books and watching the TV show.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

good early reader, using text to relate to the television show many of the stories hae been repeated in the show. growing up