Aliens, Aliens, and More Aliens: An Extraterrestrial Zoo Cover Reveal and Q&A with Samantha van Leer

So you like science fiction.

Trouble is, the children’s book world can be a cruel place for an incipient science fiction writer for kids. Yet once in a while, on occasion, a book manages to come out in the U.S. that is precisely that. And the particular someone that has written the latest, for our purposes today, is author Samantha van Leer. For the record, van Leer is also the creator of the New York Times best-selling novels Between the Lines and Off the Page, which she recently helped adapt into an off-Broadway musical.

But that’s not why I agreed to talk to her today. Not at all.

The true reason lies in my love of science fiction for kids. Recently I had a friend ask me for outer space/martian middle grade novels for their kids, and I whipped up a list of around six titles (give or take an additional two more)*. Now I’ve another to add to this list someday. A book coming out March 4, 2025 called The Extraterrestrial Zoo. And the plot? From the publisher:

“When meteors suddenly dropped to earth containing eggs in which alien babies were growing, the government called in the experts. Ava’s parents hatched, cared for, raised, and researched these unique beings. When Ava was born, she became part of the team. So many extraterrestrial living beings (ELBs) came, that the government funded the Alien Zoo, where visitors could come and see the ELBs. It was a huge success in its day.

But now Ava is 13, and so much has changed. A terrible car accident claimed her mother. And her father, in deep despair, left Ava and the Zoo in the care of his brother, who’s still healing emotional wounds from his wartime. Then the alien babies stopped coming, and so did the public.

So when 15 year old Harley shows up as an intern for the Zoo, Ava feels blindsided. This is her show. And then a terrible storm changes everything. The once beloved ELBs are loose, and being hunted. Ava’s uncle, MIA. All she has is this strange new boy to help her save everything she loves.”

I love science fiction. How, then, could I resist talk to Samantha to find out more?

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Betsy Bird: Samantha! What a delight to talk to you today. And congrats on your book! I’m already hyping it to people as We Bought a Zoo (Full of Aliens). But where precisely did the idea for this book come from? And, on a related note, are you yourself fond of zoos?

Samantha van Leer: The inspiration for this book is actually from my childhood dog, Alvin. Alvin was this terribly disgruntled, silly-looking-thing, who always seemed absolutely disappointed he ended on this planet. Even with the most luxurious life of running through New Hampshire fields and getting (maybe too many) dinner scraps, he still felt Earth was too drab for his majestic self.

Alvin had this perfect spot on the top of his head, and while pressing my thumb to it, I would ask him, “Is there where they plugged you into your pod when they sent you to Earth?”

It was truly Alvin’s misshapen, alien-like physique, and his “done-with-this-planet” attitude that inspired an entire story. I imagined a girl whose whole life was taking care of alien creatures here on earth, just the way I cared for Alvin.

 As for zoos, I’ve always loved animals since I was a kid. My dad was raised on a farm and growing up we raised a few animals ourselves: cows, donkeys, ducks, chickens, goats, and of course lots of dogs. Visiting zoos and aquariums is still one of my favorite things to do when I travel, but I find myself having a mixed relationship with them. I believe a zoo is a place of rehabilitation. It is a place where animals should be loved, and saved, and cared for if releasing them back into the wild is not possible. I have been to some incredible zoos that try their very best to heal animals to the point of returning to their home, and for those that would not survive, they give them a wonderful life at the zoo. I’m not one to tap on the glass and demand a lion look at me for a photo. I love when I see a habitat with places for the animals to be hidden and rest. It is a privilege to see them, learn about them, and experience them up close, but it is not a right.

 I’ll get off my soap box now….

 BB: I always like it when the setting of a story becomes a character in its own right. Not to spoil anything, but the Maine woods are very key to what happens in this story. Did you select Maine for any particular reason? What is it about the state (and its woods) that felt right for this project?

Samantha: When I pictured this zoo filled with aliens, I saw it as this kitschy-roadside-stop you might visit along the way to your destination. However, when I began writing the book, I realized if there was an alien zoo today, everybody and their cousin would want to visit! I needed it to be in a place so isolated that it was kind of a pain to get to, so that when all the hype died down, and aliens weren’t so taboo anymore, the zoo may turn into this rarely visited place. Growing up in New Hampshire, I’ve visited Maine a few times and each visit, I always think the same thing: my goodness it is beautiful here and my goodness that was a long drive.

As you mention, much of the story involves the Maine woods–another reason I picked this state as the book’s setting, was because I needed a place with huge amounts of untouched forests. One of the obstacles in this book that Ava, the main character, must overcome, is navigating through these woods. It forces her to work closely with the zoo’s helpless new intern, Harley, who may not know a single thing about aliens, but is highly skilled in hiking and camping. Ava is person who operates on control and organization, the wild woods of Maine was a perfect place to send her into chaos and far, far away from her comfort zone.

BB: Okay, so the secret/not-so-secret word in children’s book publishing is that kids don’t read science fiction. Is this patently ridiculous? Of course. Part of what makes your book so much fun is the sheer amount of creativity that goes into your particular aliens. Were you a fan of science fiction as a kid? As an adult? And what, to your mind, is the best way to construct an all new alien creature?

Samantha: I do love science fiction, but I really didn’t get into it until I was an adult, simply due to the lack of children’s books in that genre. My style of writing has always blended the real world with fantasy. Science fiction felt like the perfect place for me—somewhere I could root my imagination in a touch of reality and…well, science. When you take something (not yet) real, like aliens, and mix it into our reality, the lines between fiction and fact begin to blur, and lets the reader wonder, could this really happen? It’s like starting an imagination ignition, you begin to think about what these make-believe creatures would look like in our physical space.

As I said above, the inspiration for this book was reflected in my own life of caring for my dogs. In fact, many of the alien creatures in the story are actually based off dogs I’ve had throughout my life. I took their personalities and turned them into these ridiculous extraterrestrials. One of the aliens, Pingree, for example, is based off of Alvin. Pingree is grumpy, and snooty, and terribly displeased with the planet he’s on.

Adding my pet’s personalities to these characters made them feel real and unique. Personally, I think it helps the reader fall in love with them.

When it comes to the physical qualities of an alien, there are no rules. This was a place I could let my imagination run wild. I love building things from scratch in my writing. When I work so hard to make a setting that is real and reflective of our world, I feel creatively “let loose” when I get to add in the absurd fictional aspect. Every time I wrote an alien, I let myself imagine the craziest thing—what if fur could glow in the dark? What if something had one hundred teeth? What if one could move at the speed of light? When it came to creating the aliens, my mantra was: why not?

BB: Talk to us a little about the process of creating this book. How much does the final draft resemble the first draft? What kinds of changes did you have to make? And is there anything that got left on the cutting room floor (so to speak) that you miss?

Samantha: This book has been through so many drafts I had to buy more computer storage to manage it. As I previously said, this book first began as a college thesis. It was a little over a hundred pages and it was the bare bones of what this book is today. Before I committed full time to writing, I taught Fourth Grade for four years in Massachusetts. On summer vacations I would edit and add to the book. When I finally switched full time to writing, I broke the book into pieces and rebuilt it. There was a time when Harley, the intern, had his own narrative every other chapter. There was a draft where there were old letters from Ava’s father spaced throughout the story. There was a version where Ava was older, things were darker and harsher and I thought that book may be Young Adult, not Middle Grade. I went through so many drafts to land on this final book and it was all meant to be. This story is going to reach the audience it was meant to, with the characters fully fleshed out, and more aliens than ever for the reader to fall in love with.

BB: Finally, I can see that more books in the Extraterrestrial Zoo series are imminent. What can readers expect and what else do you have going on in the future?

Samantha: I do have a sequel for this book already written and currently being edited. When you read book one, you’ll find Ava’s life is never a straight and easy path, and book two is simply a continuation of Ava’s wild adventures. We all know that girl is never going to just sit still. I don’t want to reveal anything too soon, but I promise the characters you know and love will be there, and my little hint to the story line is: aliens, aliens, and more aliens.

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And now, the moment of revelation . . . the cover!

Is it just me, or is that a more attractive book jacket than we usually see?

Well, thanks to Samantha for taking the time to answer my questions. Thank you too to Stephanie Pando and the team at Candlewick Press for helping to put all this together. The Extraterrestrial Zoo: Finding the Lost One will be released March 4, 2025, so be sure to look for it then!

*For those of you interested, the middle grade science fiction titles I recommended to my friend included the following (they told me they already loved Trouble in the Stars and We’re Not From Here): Grace Needs Space, A Rover’s Story, Earth Boy, In the Red (and, by extension, Last Day on Mars and Mars Evacuees), Dragon Pearl, and Stanislaw Lem’s The Seventh Voyage.

Filed under: Cover Reveal, Interviews