Johnny and the Bomb
by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 1996); audiobook read by Richard Mitchley (BBC Audiobooks, 1997)
Pratchett gifts middle-grade readers the perfect introduction to time travel, albeit that his mid-1990s ‘now’ is itself receding into history, in rapid pursuit of the Second World War ‘then’. Thought-provoking and wryly funny, with memorable characters and a rich vein of dialogue.
The Man from R.O.B.O.T.
by Harry Harrison (Analog, July 1969)
This novelette sees Harry Harrison in one of his lighter moods. The ‘one man against a world’ scenario is reminiscent of Eric Frank Russell, as is the irreverence threaded throughout, but the journey in this case leads to a rather banal denouement.
Snoopy Treasury
by Charles M. Schulz (Book Club Associates, 1981)
A large-format book combining much of “Peanuts Treasury” (1960s dailies and Sundays, black and white) with the colour Sundays from “Sandlot Peanuts” (1960s-1970s baseball themed). The result is nearly 200 pages of wit and wisdom, somewhat lopsided in favour of Charlie Brown.
A Touch of Diphtheria
by Roger MacBride Allen (Analog, February 1993)
An odd SF novelette told with workmanlike prose and involving a convoluted crime within several layers of deception; also, an intergalactic murder investigation where the protagonist does no investigating. She merely intuits the solution behind closed doors and plots a big reveal.
Adventures of the Red Tape Gang
by Joan Lowery Nixon (Putnam, 1974)
Four 12-year-old boys set out to right neighbour wrongs in vigilante fashion—an undertaking made more difficult when a girl from their class finds out and blackmails them into letting her join their club. An exciting adventure structured around low-key plot contrivances.
The Twelve Million Dollar Note and Other Strange But True Sea Stories
by Robert Kraske (Scholastic, 1977)
A miscellany of tales about messages washed ashore in bottles. There is little cohesion to the collection, nor academic rigour applied in establishing each story’s veracity, yet the accounts are easy to read and pitched to fire the imaginations of middle-grade students.
The Mystery of the Strange Bundle
by Enid Blyton (Methuen, 1952)
Another mystery stumbled upon and solved largely by chance, the investigation aided by a fortuitous discovery arising from Fatty’s having played a prank on Goon! The usual fun but not very satisfying. Fatty at last has some comeuppance for all his Goon-baiting.
Asterix and the Magic Carpet
by Albert Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder, 1988)
A breezy if inconsequential adventure. Uderzo sends his heroes on a tour of the ancient world and depicts India for the first time, his illustrations proving less cluttered and less exotically Eastern than those of Jean Tabary’s Iznogoud (which gets a shout-out).
Lifeforce
dir. Tobe Hooper (1985)
Science fiction horror with a chilling premise and a big-screen budget, yet decidedly B-movie in its execution. The script is a confused mess and most of the actors look like they haven’t recovered from actress Mathilda May (‘Space Girl’) wandering around naked.
The Famous Five: Five Run Away Together
dir. James Gatward; adapted by Gail Renard (ITV, 1979)
The character interactions are stilted and the story is heavily abridged. However, this is the one episode of the 1970s Famous Five adaptation worth sitting through—for Patrick Troughton’s comparative masterclass as the understated yet commanding, henpecked yet still villainous Mr Stick.