Product Description

The third title in a terrific fantasy series starring Johnny Maxwell, reissued in B format.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121039 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Binding: Paperback
• 249 pages

From the Back Cover
It's May 21 1941, thought Johnny. It's war.

Johnny Maxwell and his friends have to do something when they find Mrs Tachyon, the local bag lady, semi-conscious in an alley ... as long as it's not the kiss of live.

But there's more to Mrs Tachyon than a squeaky trolley and a bunch of dubious black bags. Somehow she holds the key to different times, different eras - including the Blackbury Blitz in 1041. Suddenly now isn't the safe place Johnny once thought it was as he finds himself caught up more and more with then ...

Smarties Prize, Silver Medal winner
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and The Children's Book Award

'Enormously entertaining and contains more wry observations than you could shake a Heinkel at' Daily Telegraph

From the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which won the 2001 Carnegie Medal.

About the Author
Terry Pratchett:
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie. His first Discworld novel for children, THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal.

Customer Reviews

Darker than usual Pratchett
I read the review by Bryson who said that it was derivative of Just William and many books of that time. I am not old enough to have read them but Terry Pratchett probably did and was probably influenced by them, but his view of childhood is certainly a modern one, with the "Hoodies" and the broken families.

There is a fatalist irony in the character of Johnny which is perhaps strongest here with how his granddad never talked about the war and how Johnny feels so much of the impact of the bombing in Paradise Street. The Physics is interesting rather than central, a thought experiment with a wry smile.

So for me it is quite good, not his best as I have read almost everything he has written but it is well observed and should strike a note with any 12 year old reading it today.

Explore the trouser legs of time
One of a set of three, each book can be read as a stand alone novel or as part of the 'Johnny Trilogy', (although younger readers may not fully appreciate the 'space invader' references in 'Only you can save mankind'). Full of quirky humour and suitable for equally quirky 9ish year olds and up. Johnny Maxwell and his friends become unstuck in time and end up in 1941 Britain. One of them is separated from the rest and as a result creates a 'new trouser leg of time', resulting in a moral dilemma in the future, or is it the present? This book has a back story, a front story and a feasible explanation for eccentric bag ladies everywhere, (and their cats). My favourite book of the trilogy, where the characters of this series of books are fleshed out. Useful to upper juniors studying the differences between world war II Britain and the present day, in a relaxed kind of way. File under science fiction though.

Excellent book, and just as excellent t.v series!!!
Johnny and the Bomb just has to be the best out of all the Johnny series,partly because it helps you notice how children today have changed from children back in 1941,but mainly because it is so touching about how far Johnny will go to save his grandma from getting bombed.

My favourite character is Kirsty,because she is so good at judo and confident in herself!!!I think this book is really funny,but sad in parts too.

Johnny and the Bomb has recently been made into a three-part t.v series and it is just how i imagined the book to be,on a recent interview Terry Pratchett (the author) said it was just like walking into his head when he was writing the book!

I really reccomend this book to children (and adults as well!) adged 7 to whatever age!!!I thouroughly enjoyed it and if you like stories about the past with a twist the this is the book for you!!!