Wrong On So Many Levels: Ceto's New Friends

Ceto looks pretty Grey to me.

This is an expanded and updated version of my original review of Leah Haley's children's book Ceto's New Friends. You can read the original on Amazon.com.

A children's book about alien abductions is wrong on every level you can imagine.

Leah Haley is a former self described alien abductee, now self described government mind control victim, who has written a book about her experiences, Lost Was the Key (1993). In addition to this book, she has written a children's book called Ceto's New Friends (1995). Haley wrote both books before she determined she was a victim not of alien abductions but of government mind control experiments.

The children's book describes the adventures of two human children, Annie and Seth. One day while playing outside, Annie and Seth encounter a classic Grey alien (although Haley disputes this description of it) named Ceto. "Ceto cannot talk with his mouth. He talks with his eyes."

Ceto makes friends with the children and coaxes them into his spaceship.

Once on his spaceship, Ceto "taught them how to talk with their eyes" like he does and let them play with the spaceship controls. Who lets their kids drive their car?

When Annie and Seth started to get tired, Ceto took them back to Earth and gave them "a purple rock."

The story ends with the Ceto flying away, but with the promise that it "will come back soon to visit his new friends on Earth."

Now, what's wrong with this children's story?

OK, maybe here Ceto is chalky.
It may be the scanner.

For now we can ignore issues related to the reality (or lack thereof) of alien abductions and/or government mind control experiments. Ceto's New Friends has a much greater problem than that.

That problem is it encourages children to go away with strangers. In an era where we are hyper-sensitive to children's encounters with strangers, Ceto's New Friends sends a significant counter-message. This was true in the 1990s and possibly even more true in the 21st century.  Rather than be wary of strangers, Ceto's... sends the message that strangers will teach children all sorts of neat things (in addition to talking with their eyes, Ceto teaches Annie and Seth how to float and fly on their own (ala Peter Pan) and will give them gifts. According to the story, these are good things.

Would you tell your children to go away with strangers, that strangers met on the street will teach them great secrets and give them cool gifts, that cooperating with strangers is a Good Thing?

I don't know any parent who would willingly do such a thing, yet Leah Haley's children's book sends exactly this message.

Regardless of the reality of alien abductions, this book is flawed and could actually put children at risk. Children reading this book could get the wrong message that strangers are OK to talk to and to accept gifts from. This is hardly the message we want to send our children.

[Marc Davenport, Leah Haley's significant other (now deceased), responded to my original review. He characterized it as an "attack" and accused me of apparently advocating censorship, "since your protest against Leah's children's book seems to indicate you would like to see it cencored [sic]!" I should note that nowhere in my criticism have I ever indicated I would like to see any book, including Ceto's New Friends, suppressed. Criticism and censorship are two entirely different things.]

[The following is Leah Haley's response to an earlier version of this review. I have made only minor cosmetic changes to her message (I deleted some extraneous white space and my original message, which was quoted in its entirety). The content of her response is unchanged.]

In response to the negative criticism of my book, *Ceto's New Friends*:

There are a lot of negative forces at work in the universe, trying to stir up trouble. (I am writing about this very issue in my next book.)

To set the record straight, *Ceto's New Friends* is about an alien, not about strangers.  It is about a chalky-colored alien (like the chalky-colored creatures described in *Lost Was the Key*), not about a Gray. I believe that to teach children that all aliens are horrible entities is to create unnecessary fear. It would be like teaching children to fear all men because a few are rapists, murderers, and kidnappers.

Alien abductions are going to happen whether we like it or not. If a child has been taught by his parents to be terrified of aliens and the child is abducted, he is going to enter the experience filled with fear, which will make his experience worse.  And not all contact experiences are negative ones, but if a child has been taught to fear aliens and enters a contact experience fearful, then his experience may be unnecessarily negative.

By the way, I have two children of my own, whom I have raised to adulthood.  They are basically physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually well.  I am certain that at least one of them is an abductee, too, as she has conscious recollections of abduction experiences.  

I have stated my position and have neither the time nor the inclination to respond further. I must attend to my mission, which is educating the public about the existence of these creatures.

I wish God's blessings upon all of you who are sincerely seeking the truth.

Leah A. Haley  

Leah Haley makes a distinction between "chalky-colored" and grey aliens. I don't really see the difference in the book. They look like classic Greys. I suspect the casual reader would think the same. It's a distinction without a difference. Particularly since nowhere in the book does she specifically state their color (I guess we are supposed to figure it out for ourselves). Given that the fleshtones of the children are pretty washed out in the book it's not unreasonable to think the same of Ceto.

But that is neither here nor there. My point stands. Ceto's New Friends sends the wrong message to children and parents who would share this book with their kids are doing them a disservice.