Dean Evans 28 min read

Every boy should be able to whistle, except, of course, Martians. But this small Martian boy, swinging his butterfly net, comes whistling a strangely familiar tune.

Dean Evans's 1952 story is a warm, wistful colonization and first-contact tale. Sharp, touching golden-age SF. Read it for a gentle, memorable story where a Martian child who does the impossible, whistles, opens onto a quietly affecting mystery about Earth, Mars, and what passes between the two.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

28 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller