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Alien Nation
A wordless wonder of a picture book, reminiscent of David Wiesner and Chris Van Allsburg. An unforgettable subway ride in an alien world filled with truths of our own.
56 pages, Hardcover
Published April 13, 2021
4 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
June 23, 2021
This is essentially an art book with a very basic vignette of a story throughout that seems to be a commentary on our despicable dependence upon smart phone technology.
Alien from the shoulders up nation ambles around a train station staring at their personal screens. A young child reaches for an old school phone, which somehow temporarily disrupts the signal and quite literarily scrambles alien’s brains…and then it all goes back to normal. That’s it story wise. But the art is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. The aliens are wildly diverse and well imagined and done in striking black and white art panels, much as the cover image promises. So it’s a pleasure to peruse this book from a purely art appreciation perspective. And it only takes a few minutes to do so. Sure, the reader in me wanted more of a story, but the art lover in me unreservedly enjoyed it. Recommended.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
Alien from the shoulders up nation ambles around a train station staring at their personal screens. A young child reaches for an old school phone, which somehow temporarily disrupts the signal and quite literarily scrambles alien’s brains…and then it all goes back to normal. That’s it story wise. But the art is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. The aliens are wildly diverse and well imagined and done in striking black and white art panels, much as the cover image promises. So it’s a pleasure to peruse this book from a purely art appreciation perspective. And it only takes a few minutes to do so. Sure, the reader in me wanted more of a story, but the art lover in me unreservedly enjoyed it. Recommended.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
November 5, 2024
4 Stars ✨
Beautiful artwork in this story without words. Capturing the essence of today’s world, through imagery that should definitely get its point across to the right reader. It depicts an alien species that has an addiction to technology- especially the black box everyone carries around. For a story without words, it packs a punch. Detailing the isolation it brings and the great dependence these odd little creatures have with this technology. I thought it was super weird and brilliant at the same time. Each time you look through it, you see even more details than previous viewings. Definitely a book that makes the reader think and perfect for opening doors to deeper conversations.
Fantastic illustrations!
Beautiful artwork in this story without words. Capturing the essence of today’s world, through imagery that should definitely get its point across to the right reader. It depicts an alien species that has an addiction to technology- especially the black box everyone carries around. For a story without words, it packs a punch. Detailing the isolation it brings and the great dependence these odd little creatures have with this technology. I thought it was super weird and brilliant at the same time. Each time you look through it, you see even more details than previous viewings. Definitely a book that makes the reader think and perfect for opening doors to deeper conversations.
Fantastic illustrations!
June 26, 2021
Ever come across a picture book that you KNOW is amazing, and that you KNOW the right readers would find amazing as well, but you also KNOW that it's never gonna get the circs to justify its continued existence on the shelf? Well...
I was mesmerized by the bizarre intricate black-and-white drawings that tell a story in not telling a story. It's definitely a fringe piece. I hope I'm wrong and it gets the readers it deserves.
I was mesmerized by the bizarre intricate black-and-white drawings that tell a story in not telling a story. It's definitely a fringe piece. I hope I'm wrong and it gets the readers it deserves.
May 4, 2021
4.5 stars --- I loved the stunning artwork in this one. Surreal and wildly creative, this is the wordless story of bizarre alien creatures whose addiction to their handheld screens may ring just a little familiar to the human beings reading this book. An unimaginable amount of work must have been put into each page.
November 9, 2022
What did I just read? Or rather, since this is a picture book, what did I just look at? This is an intricately illustrated, almost wordless story about technology. The moral of the story may be too simplistic, but on the other hand I'm not sure I understood it completely. Not for children, but worth a ponder. (If you figure it out, please explain it to me!) Originally published in Mexico.
September 21, 2021
What a debut - visually this is extraordinary, in the vein of Shaun Tan, yes, but going for a very different atmosphere and audience. The plot of the thing is a bit heavy handed, but it’s a debut and the actual art and pacing is astonishingly assured
April 28, 2021
Oh yes, I am definitely all about this one.
July 17, 2021
No words, great black and white full page art. Tells a story of a society's dependence on phones and how that isolates the individuals.
August 3, 2023
So odd. Strange illustrations that decorate a minimal story. Not quite sure what it’s saying, which may be a good thing in a wordless book.
July 5, 2025
4* picked up for the SPL book bingo “new-to-you format” square and the illustrations were so beautiful! first wordless comic i’ve read v cool
October 27, 2025
So strange, in the best possible way. And remember never to let the baby get the remote...
October 30, 2024
Whoa. The art in this is impeccable. Downright gorgeous. Every little detail. I get the point of the book is show how engrossed we are into our phones but the art steals the show. Absolutely breathtaking. Wow.
May 14, 2021
The art is great but too slight and obvious with its point of view.
June 22, 2021
Wonderful line drawings of humans with weird, alien heads. Wordless. Aliens always looking at phones then a toddler on a subway finds an old brick phone on a seat and snatches it. His head opens up & others heads start to lose pieces. Then everyone goes back to phones. Huh…
June 3, 2021
Intricate artwork gussies up a simplistic Luddite's worldview of cellphones and human attachment to them
March 3, 2025
Reviewing an older title that is not your traditional children's book.
First published as a comic book in 2019 by Alboroto Ediciones (Mexico) as Nacionalien, this nearly wordless picture book by Bassi is his first. Note: only the title has been translated into English; the map and images inside remain in Spanish. This book is reminiscent of works by Shaun Tan (ex. Eric) and Chris Van Allsburg (ex. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick). Tan describes his pictures books as "not specifically children's literature and appeal to a general audience, experimenting with different kinds of illustrated narrative." That same approach should be given to this gem. It is what the reader makes of it. Here is my takeaway.
A creature with multiple eyes is engrossed with what is on his cell phone. When he arrives in the large train station, he heads toward his subway train platform. A creature mother with her creature child in a stroller enters the train. It is so crowded on the train that an old-style walkie-talkie portable telephone falls out of the shopping bag of a creature lady. No one notices as their faces are buried in their cell phones. However the child in the stroller notices it, drops his cell phone, reaches out to grab it, and begins to push buttons. That is when the cell phones of everyone on the train lose reception. The heads of all the creatures on board - the child, its mother, and everyone else lose reception on their phones and their heads experience nothing less than mind-blowing, as they are split open, eyes popping out of heads, heads explode, come unscrewed, and generally melt down. The subway train car is full of these parts of heads as it races down the tracks to its next stop. The mother spots the root cause of the problem (the portable telephone), takes it away from her child, and everyone's phones once again are receiving messages and heads return to normalcy. The mother gets off the train with her child and everyone goes on their merry way with their faces buried, once again, in their phones.
Bassi's detailed graphite pencil art is both stunning and shocking in its detail. One could take hours pouring over this gem to see every detail. It should not be lost on anyone that the title "Alien Nation" can also be written as "alienation" - isolation because of our obsession with technology. I fear our society is closing in on this, though there is hope of breaking away from it.
This book is Recommended for grades 3-up. While is appears to be a one-trick-pony, it could be uses as a great discussion-starter and writing prompt for middle and upper grades.
First published as a comic book in 2019 by Alboroto Ediciones (Mexico) as Nacionalien, this nearly wordless picture book by Bassi is his first. Note: only the title has been translated into English; the map and images inside remain in Spanish. This book is reminiscent of works by Shaun Tan (ex. Eric) and Chris Van Allsburg (ex. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick). Tan describes his pictures books as "not specifically children's literature and appeal to a general audience, experimenting with different kinds of illustrated narrative." That same approach should be given to this gem. It is what the reader makes of it. Here is my takeaway.
A creature with multiple eyes is engrossed with what is on his cell phone. When he arrives in the large train station, he heads toward his subway train platform. A creature mother with her creature child in a stroller enters the train. It is so crowded on the train that an old-style walkie-talkie portable telephone falls out of the shopping bag of a creature lady. No one notices as their faces are buried in their cell phones. However the child in the stroller notices it, drops his cell phone, reaches out to grab it, and begins to push buttons. That is when the cell phones of everyone on the train lose reception. The heads of all the creatures on board - the child, its mother, and everyone else lose reception on their phones and their heads experience nothing less than mind-blowing, as they are split open, eyes popping out of heads, heads explode, come unscrewed, and generally melt down. The subway train car is full of these parts of heads as it races down the tracks to its next stop. The mother spots the root cause of the problem (the portable telephone), takes it away from her child, and everyone's phones once again are receiving messages and heads return to normalcy. The mother gets off the train with her child and everyone goes on their merry way with their faces buried, once again, in their phones.
Bassi's detailed graphite pencil art is both stunning and shocking in its detail. One could take hours pouring over this gem to see every detail. It should not be lost on anyone that the title "Alien Nation" can also be written as "alienation" - isolation because of our obsession with technology. I fear our society is closing in on this, though there is hope of breaking away from it.
This book is Recommended for grades 3-up. While is appears to be a one-trick-pony, it could be uses as a great discussion-starter and writing prompt for middle and upper grades.
Want to read
April 1, 2021"Venezuelan artist Bassi’s picturebook debut features various aliens as
characters—but whether a character
has a single eye or dozens of minuscule
eyeballs, all are glued to their smartphone
screens. In this wordless fable for the
digital age, a subway commute turns terrifying when a toddler on the train finds
and turns on a twentieth century–style
cordless (and screenless) telephone. This
simple action somehow disrupts all the
passengers’ wireless connections, causing
a temporary, and wonderfully surreal,
breakdown of their very selves. Exquisitely detailed, realistic grayscale pencil
illustrations pull viewers into the setting,
utterly familiar except inhabited by a
large cast of mesmerizing (and uniquely
designed) alien characters. Employing
mostly double-page spreads, Bassi occasionally mixes in comic-book-style paneling to control the pacing and artfully
varies scale to enhance the storytelling. The best wordless (well, mostly: signage
in Spanish is incorporated into the
illustrations) picture books are enhanced
by careful re-readings, where previously
unnoticed details provide deeper understandings, and this is one such book, so
full of detail and general oddness that
readers will demand multiple encounters
and lots of time to pore over its finely
composed pages. eric carpenter"
characters—but whether a character
has a single eye or dozens of minuscule
eyeballs, all are glued to their smartphone
screens. In this wordless fable for the
digital age, a subway commute turns terrifying when a toddler on the train finds
and turns on a twentieth century–style
cordless (and screenless) telephone. This
simple action somehow disrupts all the
passengers’ wireless connections, causing
a temporary, and wonderfully surreal,
breakdown of their very selves. Exquisitely detailed, realistic grayscale pencil
illustrations pull viewers into the setting,
utterly familiar except inhabited by a
large cast of mesmerizing (and uniquely
designed) alien characters. Employing
mostly double-page spreads, Bassi occasionally mixes in comic-book-style paneling to control the pacing and artfully
varies scale to enhance the storytelling. The best wordless (well, mostly: signage
in Spanish is incorporated into the
illustrations) picture books are enhanced
by careful re-readings, where previously
unnoticed details provide deeper understandings, and this is one such book, so
full of detail and general oddness that
readers will demand multiple encounters
and lots of time to pore over its finely
composed pages. eric carpenter"
Read
August 9, 2021Definitely got vibes of Chris Van Allsburg or Brian Selznick. This book is entirely wordless, and it seems as though everyone is on their phone. Walking around town on their phone, on the subway on their phone. A baby in a stroller reaches for one of those giant bag phones from the '90s, and everyone seems to get a disrupted signal until I think the baby's mother takes the phone away. Then everyone goes back to their business, on their phones.
It's short, it's weird, the phone part is incredibly accurate and the alien heads are stunningly illustrated, but as a story it was thin.
It's short, it's weird, the phone part is incredibly accurate and the alien heads are stunningly illustrated, but as a story it was thin.
July 14, 2021
The artwork in this book makes it a 4 star rather than the story which is basically about people's dependency on their mobile phones. When a child reaches for an old-school phone left on a seat and starts pressing the buttons, it blocks signals to the other phones and scrambles the aliens' brains but then they all go back to normal. Would have liked a bit more of a plot. However, the artwork is stunning and surreal. So many different aliens - think the book also has a message about diversity.
As for suggested age range, top end of MG, maybe teens - though they'd have to be the sort of readers that appreciate illustrations rather than books that are plot drive, and adults.
As for suggested age range, top end of MG, maybe teens - though they'd have to be the sort of readers that appreciate illustrations rather than books that are plot drive, and adults.
March 26, 2022
3-3.5 - wordless
5 star illustrations by 3 stars for the book because I just don’t get the book. The illustrations are beautiful BW looking like detailed pencil sketches. I love the different alien heads on people. I just don’t really understand the message. Everyone is walking around with their face in their phone and on the subway looking at phones. The phones appear to get a haywire message. I expected people would revert to human heads or something but they all kept alien heads. I’m not sure the moral or lesson or message in this book.
5 star illustrations by 3 stars for the book because I just don’t get the book. The illustrations are beautiful BW looking like detailed pencil sketches. I love the different alien heads on people. I just don’t really understand the message. Everyone is walking around with their face in their phone and on the subway looking at phones. The phones appear to get a haywire message. I expected people would revert to human heads or something but they all kept alien heads. I’m not sure the moral or lesson or message in this book.
March 18, 2024
I have to say I don't really get it.
A monochromatic, largely text-less graphic novel.
Everyone is walking around with their differently shaped heads stuck in their smartphones. A child in a stroller grabs an old-fashioned '80s brick-style cell phone from a subway seat, the cell/data service goes out and everyone's heads visually explode/open/spread out, and then the parent takes the brick phone away and everyone goes right back to sticking their contracted heads in their smart phones.
What's the message supposed to be? That society is doomed? Idk.
A monochromatic, largely text-less graphic novel.
Everyone is walking around with their differently shaped heads stuck in their smartphones. A child in a stroller grabs an old-fashioned '80s brick-style cell phone from a subway seat, the cell/data service goes out and everyone's heads visually explode/open/spread out, and then the parent takes the brick phone away and everyone goes right back to sticking their contracted heads in their smart phones.
What's the message supposed to be? That society is doomed? Idk.
October 27, 2024
Alien Nation is a short story of an everyday experience. But by the end, it feels like some reflection is inevitable about choice and the (un?)fulfilling nature of (dis?)connectedness.
I found the book to be quite light-hearted for a topic that generally receives a lot of serious attention. This was a refreshing new tone for what may still be a highly critical point of view.
The sequencing compositions are dynamic and experiential. This is Sandro Bassi’s debut, according to the book jacket. Visuals throughout the book have a graphite pencil appeal.
A wordless tale, so well told!
I found the book to be quite light-hearted for a topic that generally receives a lot of serious attention. This was a refreshing new tone for what may still be a highly critical point of view.
The sequencing compositions are dynamic and experiential. This is Sandro Bassi’s debut, according to the book jacket. Visuals throughout the book have a graphite pencil appeal.
A wordless tale, so well told!
August 27, 2022
A wordless picture book by Sandro Bassi that features mainly people on the subway looking at their phones. The catch is: They are cthulhu (Lovecraftian) monster heads and some other kinds of bizarre fantasy configurations for heads. A kind of discussion starter for readers. The publisher put it in the category of children's picture book which feels like a stretch, but the black and white art is wonderfully done and I liked it. I call it horror for older readers.
August 6, 2023
I either was too stupid to understand this or I was too smart. I honestly don’t know. I was confused (and so were the other 3 ppl who I made read it quickly to see if I was missing some big message about society.) very pretty art though- reminds me of the chronicles of Harris burdick and that book series of pictures that has no words (set in Paris, orphan and that filmmaker who I wanna say is Georges Seurat but I know isn’t right….)
July 6, 2021
A surreal wordless picture book featuring bizarre creatures with a variety of alien heads but otherwise human-like bodies addicted to their handheld devices that will look quite familiar to the human beings reading this book. Bassi's weird black-and-white illustrations are reminiscent of Chis Van Allsburg and Shaun Tan. Originally published in Venezuela.
December 6, 2022
2022 read #94
3 stars! This book showed how these characters represented the human race. It shows the obsession with phones and how it consumes; it shows if anything wrong with our devices we have to fix it immediately. I also enjoyed the pictures/designs in this book. They were creepy and well detailed.
3 stars! This book showed how these characters represented the human race. It shows the obsession with phones and how it consumes; it shows if anything wrong with our devices we have to fix it immediately. I also enjoyed the pictures/designs in this book. They were creepy and well detailed.
July 18, 2025
The story line itself is short and slightly confusing, but I came here for the absolutely incredible art, and I'm leaving satisfied. I would love to be and to see even more of the alien world it's set in.
April 25, 2021
( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°)
( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°)┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ this book has many cell phone the aliens look nice
( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°)┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ this book has many cell phone the aliens look nice
April 26, 2021
Outstanding check out my review for it: https://www.mrripleysenchantedbooks.c... Come and say HELLO!
May 21, 2021
It may look like an alien word but look closely at one of the illustrations. Nice parable for the oversaturation of digital connectedness.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews