About the wonder of life

Eight-year-old Joe is about to become a big brother. His mother is in labour at the hospital when he looks outside and sees a little boy hanging upside down in an apple tree. It’s Mika, who has just fallen out of a spaceship. Mika is from Eljo, where children hatch out of eggs and life in general is quite different from what Joe knows. Mika and Joe become instant friends and spend the day discussing everything from dinosaurs and gravity to the origins of life on Earth. The next morning Mika is gone, but Joe has a new-found appreciation for the wonders of the universe – and a baby brother!

With thought-provoking questions like “Can animals think?”, “what would you say if you had a visit from another planet?” Jostein Gaarder challenges readers to look at the world afresh, much in the manner of The Little Prince.

Illustrated by Reidar Kjelsen.