kids fiction, space "thing" called B9 comes to Earth

Looking for a children's book, probably a hardcover about a space creature, possibly a spaceship called B9. B9 comes to earth looking for friends, no one was friendly except a small boy. He was lonely and sad until meeting this boy. That's about all we can remember unfortunately. The book did have lots of color illustrations, full page with dialogue printed around the pics. Sound familiar to anyone???

Hi Scubagirl. Thank you for the entry. Do you happen to remember roughly what time you read the book and if so, if it seemed like an older or newer (i.e. current) published book? You also mentioned colorful illustrations. Do you happen to remember any in particular and/or perhaps a cover picture? Thanks.

Did a quick Worldcat search for juvenile fiction with the keywords "space creature". I found the following called Beegu by Alexis Deacon. The link below has a picture of the cover. Full WorldCat listing is below that.

http://www.amazon.com/Beegu-Alexis-Deacon/dp/0374306672

Beegu /
Alexis Deacon
2003 1st American ed.
English Book Book : Fiction : Primary school 1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 24 cm.

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ; ISBN: 0374306672 9780374306670

A small creature from space finds no welcome on Earth, until she meets a group of children on a playground.

The story of an alienated alien

Beegu’s spacecraft is stranded on Earth. Now she is lost and wandering. Waiting for a rescue signal from her mother, she fails to make friends with the strange creatures she encounters. Rabbits don't seem to understand her; windblown leaves won’t stay still to listen. But at last, on a school playground, Beegu discovers a group of fantastic companions who are happy to let her join their games . . . until a grownup creature spoils the fun.

Beegu's spirits are sinking lower than ever just as the mother ship arrives, in this simple, bittersweet picture book that shows us our world through the three eyes of an innocent outsider with the help of stylish art and a wry, understated text.

Thanks for your reply, although I agree posting the time the book was read would have been good! It was early 70s. The cover was (we think) a picture of B9, which we think was a spaceship but made to look "alive" as it had a face. It is actually my boyfriend who is hoping to find this book, so I am passing along anything that he remembers. Thanks!

2-B and the Space Visitor
by Bob Miller
But this was 1981. So maybe not that.

A good guess, but that was not it. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Pretty sure this is "B-9 the Hungry Metal Eater" by Esther Hauser Laurence.

B-9 the Hungry Metal Eater
Metal-eater B-9 is always devouring the wrong things until he discovers earth's endless supply of scrap metal.
---
That's strange; I recently read a book called The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, where the title character eats scrap metal.

Have you seen the US movie based on that Hughes story? -- The Iron Giant (1999, animated). I found it charming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Giant

B-9 The Hungry Metal Eater was it!!!! I am so thrilled, I have had 100% success so far with everything that I have been hoping to find on this site :) Thanks again everyone!!!

So glad you found your book! I had this book as a kid and was pretty sure it was the one you were looking for.

Woohoo congratulations!

No I haven't seen The Iron Giant, have heard of it. Will see if the public library has it on DVD (affirmative). Apparently the book is classic and I enjoyed it, but had never read it or heard of it before.

Awesome, my boyfriend is very excited, he is going to look for a copy on-line tonight :)