sometime in the 80's, I owned an illustrated book of science fiction stories. I think it was a collection for young people. If I recall correctly, the cover featured a blue spacecraft and a large green alien. There were several stories in the book. One that I recall was about a zookeeper who felt bad about the way his animals were treated. Aliens come and offer to take all of the animals to a sanctuary on another planet. He goes with them. Another story in the collection was about an astronaut floating in space. This was accompanied by a memorable full page illustration of the astronaut floating in front of something that looked like a membrane. I also remember an illustration of a blue female cat person. Does anyone know the title of the anthology or either of these stories?
1 Answer
The anthology is "Stories from Outer Space" by Raj Sacranie.
The cover illustration is from the story "Taking Care of Baby". Plot: a freighter lands on a planet believed uninhabited to mine fuel, but finds it inhabited by huge green dragon like creatures.
The story about the zookeeper was titled "Zoo Story". The aliens did indeed offer to take him with them, but he declined and remained on Earth. In the final scene, the owner of the zoo was yelling at him that the zoo would have to close down because all of the animals had gone missing.
I'm not 100% sure about the astronaut floating in space, but it sounds like the end of "The Talent". The astronaut was a telepathic boy adopted by a married couple (both schoolteachers) growing up in the ruins of a city on Earth.
The female cat person (are you sure it wasn't just her clothing that was blue? I remember her fur being pink) was a character in "Edgar" (the first story in the anthology if I remember correctly). She was trying to convince a human that her people (who had committed terrible war crimes) had reformed and were no longer dangerous.
The other stories were "Child of the Graveyard", "We Eat Pigs, Don't We?", "Between the Galaxies", "The Race", and "Time Travel".
