Can you help me find this book please? Driving me bonkers

[AdventureIsWaiting]

I've been reminded (can't think why!) of a book I had when I was a child in the 1990s and I'd like to see if I can get a copy. I have tried googling the story line (with difference phrases) but can't find it and I was hoping someone on MN might know it / remember it.

The book was set on another planet and describes an alien race who are exactly like humans except they have blue skin and they can physically close their ears when they don't want to listen. I'm not 100% on the blue skin, but I think I remember an illustration with blue skin.

The narrator describes how the aliens co-exist peacefully, but eventually start closing their ears when they don't want to listen to things they don't like and eventually end up either at war or in a lot of arguments.

I can't remember how the book ends.

Appreciate this isn't a lot of information (and is probably why I can't find it!) - does anyone have any ideas please?

[AdaColeman]

Might it be The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? That had a very popular reissue around that time IIRC.

[Enrosadira]

No aliens in the little prince. That’s a totally dofferent story.

[GeorgiaGirl52]

Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles?

[TheOrchidKiller]

I bet it wasn't this, but I used to read it to DS. The aliens learned all about humans "earthlets". I don't remember the thing about the ears, so I am probably way off the mark.

[AdventureIsWaiting]

Thank you! Unfortunately it's none of those. It was aimed at primary-age children, and I remember reading it in primary school. It was quite a simply cautionary tale. It might have been written in the 1980s? I was in primary school in the early 1990s.

[SquatBetty]

Try posting this in the 'children's books' section on the Books board - the posters there have a high strike rate of knowing titles of forgotten books

[AdventureIsWaiting]

Thanks! I will do.