The Green Family
Zephyr has become my very best friend. We are in the same class in school, and we hang out together all the time. Zephyr is funny and smart and knows a lot about scientific stuff — way more than me. Zephyr is 7 Earth years old.
Aileen Green is a pretty remarkable alien. She is the pilot of the Zog Explorer #5, so she knows a lot about space travel. She is also an interplanetary botanist (plant scientist) who has studied the healing properties of plants throughout the cosmos. To learn about the medicinal powers of Earth plants, she chose to come to West County because of the abundance and variety of plants from the giant redwood trees to the vast array of mushrooms that thrive here. Just like that famous human botanist, Luther Burbank, she knows that West County is a plant paradise. Aileen is 35 Earth years of age.
Gregory Green also has remarkable skills and a lot of science knowledge. He is the Navigator aboard the Zog Explorer #5. He’s also an oceanographer, a scientist who studies, guess what? Yup, the ocean. When he researched the best place on Earth to study the ocean, just like Aileen, he decided West County was the place to be. There happen to be lots of ocean-type scientists (like my Dad!) here who he can hang out with and lots of ocean too! Gregory is 34 Earth years old.
Earlier visitors to Earth from Zog were enchanted with the idea of pets. They went back to Zog and created dogs and cats of their own. Lari is a mostly well-behaved 4 Earth years old Zog Hound, and Fenna is a well-groomed 2 Earth years old Zog Cat.
The Allen Family
You’ve already seen one picture of me, but since I’m telling the story, I get to include myself in the formal portrait gallery too.
I’m 7 Earth years old. You already know I like to draw, write, and hang out with Zephyr, and that I go to school. I also love to read, play board games, and do puzzles, especially during the rainy season when we’re stuck indoors. I like to climb trees, hike, dance, and play basketball too.
I can’t decide what I want to do when I grow up. I love writing and drawing but I also want to do all I can to help our planet. Maybe I’ll be a science writer!
Alexander is my big brother. He’s 11 Earth years old. He wants to be an astronaut or a meteorologist (a scientist who studies the Earth’s atmosphere, including it’s weather) or a baseball pitcher. He’s crazy about kite flying because he likes to read the winds and run around. He’s kind of smart, so he could probably be an astronaut AND a meteorologist. I’m not so sure about the baseball pitcher idea. He’s broken a few windows around here.
Sometimes he’s a brat and teases me. (I admit I can be annoying at times.) But most of the time, we get along pretty well.
This is my Mom, Tina. She works pretty hard as a nurse so sometimes when she comes home, we tell her to put her feet up and we’ll take care of the chores. And, sometimes, she has to ask us to do the chores! If I’m being honest, that’s what normally happens.
I love my Mom. I think she’s kind and beautiful and smart. If you’re wondering, she’s 35 Earth years old. She likes to spend time outside “puttering,” and during the rainy season, she reads and makes quilts and plays games with us.
My Dad Al grew up in a circus family, so I drew him doing a handstand. He’s still pretty agile even though he’s 36 Earth years old. He’s an ichthyologist, (that’s a fish scientist). He goes out on the ocean quite a bit, but mostly spends time in a lab, studying fish. When he’s home, my Dad likes to be outside hiking or gardening. On rainy days, he takes out his saxophone and practices in our woodshed.
David and Philomena are our pets. Like us, they like to be outdoors whenever possible. They go hiking and canoeing with us, but Philomena stays home when we go to the coast. She’s not that fond of sand and crashing waves. David is 5 Earth years old and 35 Earth dog years old. Philomena is 3 Earth years old. I don’t know what that is in cat years.