Katie and Orbie Switch Off Lights

Christy Conte is a business analyst and entrepreneur in Ajax, Ontario.

Each story in this four-book series features Orbie, an alien who has
been sent by his mother from his dying planet to find another home where
environmental disasters have not yet made life impossible. Orbie meets
Katie, and together they set out to clean up her home planet, Earth.

The book jackets describe these books as timely and enchanting. The
environmental message in this series certainly comes across loud and
clear. Katie and Orbie plant trees, turn off lights, listen to birds
sing, and watch fireflies. It is because of the singlemindedness of this
message, however, that the books are less charming than their jackets
promise. As is so often the case in this genre, a certain
heavy-handedness is evident in the text, as the effort to educate,
rather than entertain, assumes primary importance.

On the whole, however, children should enjoy these books. The subject
matter is familiar and the text is accompanied by the happy, losely
drawn illustrations of the author’s father, Ben Wicks.