Cover-01

Cover illustration from the 1958 Scribner's edition. Cover and interior illustrati​on by Ed Emshwiller . Clifford "Kip" Russell, a bright high school senior with an eccentric father, enters an advertising jingle writing contest, hoping to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon. He instead gets an obsolete, but genuine, used space suit. Though a few make fun of him, with the help of sympathetic townspeople, and using his own ingenuity and determination, Kip puts the suit (which he dubs "Oscar") back into working condition. While testing the suit in a field, Kip is picked up by a UFO that is piloted by a young girl and an alien she calls the "Mother Thing." They are running from a ruthless alien who has sinister plans for Earth. They are recaptured by the aliens and taken via the Moon to Pluto.