Soccer Mom From Outer Space is a wild and enthusiastic picturebook written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg that, with whimsical delight, pokes fun at how heavily involved some parents get into their children's games. The night before a young girl plays her first soccer game, her father confesses the true story of the soccer mom from outer space - who became transformed into an alien! Soccer Mom From Outer Space is highly recommended as a joyful, lighthearted, and fun-to-read tale.

The soccer mom of this story was an ordinary mother until she attended her son's first match with the Atomic Pickles: there she turned into an alien who became an embarrassment at games. Readers with good reading skills will relish this lively story of a wild mother perhaps too supportive of her son.

This ambitious work attempts a comprehensive view of XX Century music as expressed by the composers. Some chapters are esthetically nauseating (e.g. the chapters concerning a couple of straight-line Soviet composers, and some Western charlatans as well), but the historical value of these texts is undeniable. At last could I read the "scandalous" text by Babbit "Who cares if you listen?" However, it seems that in many cases the Editors just put together what was readily available instead of trying further to obtain what would be desirable to publish. Considering that this reviewed edition was published in 1998 maybe some younger composers with appreciable international projection could have been included (e.g. Rihm, Essl). Some very important composers are missing (Berio, Messiaen, Boulez).