So, the alien, Flash, asks the human boy, Jack, to explain these conundrums to him. It's a great way to look at some of the weirdness of English. Does a bed in the sea needs sheets and a pillow? Can you ride a sea horse since you can ride a horse on land?

Just think of all the ways that we use words and reuse them to designate very different things and how confusing that can be to an alien and to a youngster trying to figure out what people mean.

The drawing are fanciful depictions of the scene called up by the words. The story is mostly in rhyme. For me that gets a bit annoying very quickly but I know that young children love it -- so, if as a parent who'll probably be reading this over and over and over again to a young child, you might want to keep that in mind.

This is also a chance to discuss a lot of other words with various meaning depending on how they are used. Entertainment and a spur for a teaching moment -- and a good bit of fun.