Some of the Kinder Planets

I guess I read this when I was twelve and it was first published. I don't remember much about it now, except that I just recently have paid off the late charges I incurred at the library because of this book. (Also the Young Detective's Handbook to be perfectly honest.) I intend to purchase it now, because 8 years later I still remember it as being something beautiful.

There's some weird and wonderful stuff in these short stories, and that's what makes them worth reading. This is classic Wynne-Jones, one of the best authors I know of.

This book was quite possibly the best book I have ever owned. In fact, I liked it soo much that I lent it to all of my friends so that they could ead it. Most of them disliked it, but then one of them liked it so much that they stole it. (We're not friends anymore) But, that is all irrelevant. The point is, I am now scouring the Earth for another copy of this book, because I need to own it. The stories are all inane and pointless, but they remind you of what is was like when you were a child, back when the biggest worry was what kind of sandwich you had in your lunch. This book strikes a nostalgic note in me, and I chuckle every time I read the stories. Childhood was fun, and happy.

This is really, really, really good. It is FUNNY, FUN, and just reall really good. READ IT!

I picked up Tim Wynne-Jones book because of the similarity of the author's surname to that of one of my favourite authors, Diana Wynne Jones. The title and cover suggested to me that Tim Wynne-Jones has a similar preference for writing fantasy stories - but what I found was fantasy of a different kind. There are planets and Martians and secret lands and transformations in this book: but the planets are made of crumpled-up newspaper stuck together with grape-flavoured chewing gum, the Martians are an Asian-Canadian family wearing red flannel pyjamas, the secret lands are abandoned trailers or words in an atlas, and the transformations the kind of transformations all children go through, growing up and coping with their parents, their peers, and their own insecurities. Wynne-Jones manages to infuse these realistic stories with a wonder as appealing as the wonder of fairytales. Junkfood and laserprinters are as much a part of these stories as tadpoles and snow: they paint a very tangible picture of pre-adolescence in a postmodern world (I hate that word too, but it had to be there). Best of all, unlike many naturalistic stories, these stories are infused with optimism and HOPE - HOPE scrawled by a child on a piece of brown paper, with four crossbars on the E. Wynne-Jones' heroes, for all their idiosyncracies, or perhaps because of them, are easy to identify with. Reading their stories in the book, I wanted to be their friend