DANNY DUNN AND THE ANTI-GRAVITY PAINT, by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin (orig. published 1956)(ages 8-12).
What I remember: In the DANNY DUNN series, Danny and his friends (Joe and Irene, etc.) have various science fiction-y adventures. In this one, they accidentally set loose a spaceship and go traveling across the solar system...
I didn't read the entire series, but do recall DANNY DUNN AND THE HOMEWORK MACHINE and DANNY DUNN AND THE SWAMP MONSTER.
The rest of the recollection: I remember always liking these books and am a little surprised I never read them all (especially since there's one about them being trapped on a desert island). I also remember ANTI-GRAVITY paint feeling a little dated, but that was kind of one of the things
I liked about it.
And now: It's still a bit dated, but still fun (The science, even apart from the "anti-gravity paint," doesn't quite work...).
In addition to Danny and his friend Joe, we're introduced to Danny's mother, and to Professor Bulfinch and Dr. Grimes (The jolly chubby scientist and the more saturnine tall, thin one must have been popular back in the day (it's also featured in
THE ENORMOUS EGG)). Irene apparently doesn't join the cast until book 3. And, it's illustrated by
Ezra Jack Keats!
It's the bellbottoms on the hippy dippy minstrel that I love.
- Comic book bloggers and children’s literature bloggers are two sides of the same coin. Our interests often run parallel. The degree to which the academic world regards us is fairly similar (though admittedly we get to have Norton Anthologies while they are sorely lacking any such distinction). I don’t read my comic book blogs as frequently as I might, but once in a while the resident husband will draw my attention to something particularly toothsome. Such a case was this series on Comic Book Resources. A fellow by the name of Greg Hatcher makes a tour of the countryside each year, finding small towns with even smaller bookshops and thrift shops. This year his has posted his finds and the children’s literature goodies are frequent. In part one he pays homage to a surprise discovery of Kieran Scott’s Geek Magnet and shows the sad state of Sacagawea-related children’s literature in gift shops today (though I sure hope the Lewis & Clark gift shop also has the wherewithal to carry Joseph Bruchac’s Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark). In part two Greg discovers the oddly comic-less Janet Townsend novel The Comic Book Mystery, finds the name Franklin Dixon on a book that ISN’T a Hardy Boys novel, and waxes eloquent on the career of illustrator Kurt Wiese. In part three he locates some very rare and pristine Trixie Belden novels (which I adored as a kid). And finally, in part four he introduces us to the Danny Dunn series, shows us a hitherto unknown Three Investigators cover, and discusses Henry Reed (with illustrations by Robert McCloskey, of course). If you enjoy bookscouting in any way, these posts are a joy. Take a half an hour out of your day to go through them. Greg writes with an easy care that I envy and hope to emulate. Plus I loved the idea of giving photographs inserted into posts colored notations the way he does. I’ve already started to try it myself. Thanks to Matt (who, I see, recently credited Better Off Ted, for which I am grateful) for the links.
- I sort of view agent Nathan Bransford with the same wary respect I once bestowed upon a toucan I found in the London department store Harrods. I’m grateful that he’s there and I can’t look away, but there’s something unnerving about running across him. And now he appears to have a book coming out with Dial in 2011, which is nice except that I keep misreading the title as Jacob Wonderbra and the Cosmic Space Kapow. For the record, I would give a whole lot of money to any author willing to name their titular character (childish giggle) after a bra, a girdle, or even a good old-fashioned garter. Okay . . . why am I talking about Nathan Bransford again? Oh righ
I have that book on my bookshelf!