Product Description

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 life. 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 ears - including the Blackbury Blitz in 1941. 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 WINNERSHORTLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42261 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Original language: English
• 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 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

The best book in Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell series
In my opinion, Johnny and the Bomb is the best book in Terry Pratchett’s Johnny Maxwell trilogy. While classified as juvenile fiction, this book bears the strongest resemblance of the three to Pratchett’s Discworld ideas and characterizations, containing much more social commentary, satire, and sidesplitting comedy than Only You Can Save Mankind and Johnny and the Dead. For such a normal twelve-year-old kid, Johnny Maxwell has some amazing adventures. This time around, he becomes a time traveler. Old Mrs. Tachyon, whom we have met briefly earlier in the series, is now revealed to be something more than a crazy bag lady; she is a time-traveling crazy bag lady. When she turns up injured, Johnny and his friends summon an ambulance for her and take her trolley cart (complete with her ornery cat Guilty) to Johnny’s garage for safe keeping. Johnny notices that some of her bags seem to move of their own accord at times, and this discovery quickly leads to an episode of quite unexpected time travel.

The characters of Johnny’s remarkable friends are fleshed out in this novel to a much greater extent than they were in the previous two novels. Yo-less, a black kid, is less than pleased to find himself dubbed Sambo by the folks living in 1941, and the extremely forceful young Kirsten is almost as upset about being treated like a “little lady.” Johnny, for his part, often finds himself putting his sanity at risk by contemplating the ways and whims of time travel. I found this book to be hilarious; the time travel part of the tale is a little wild and crazy, but hypotheses about the different legs of the Trousers of Time is vintage Pratchett material. Old Mrs. Tachyon is a wonderful character, seemingly rather insane based on her thought processes and tendency to spout gibberish all the time, she is perhaps more sane than anyone else around her; time traveling is enough to warp anyone’s mind, Johnny reasons. I was rather delighted to hear Mrs. Tachyon mumble the words “Millennium hand and shrimp” at one point because these are the very same words often spoken by Foul Ole Ron on the Discworld. This adventure really is the type of thing you might expect to find on Pratchett’s famous planetary creation, and I daresay any Discworld fan should enjoy this book immensely. I find myself wishing for more Johnny Maxwell stories; I feel as if I know these characters now, and they are a fascinating, increasingly funny bunch of guys to hang around with.

Yet another super adventure for Johnny and freinds
This entire series (see Only You Can Save Mankind, and Johnny and The Dead) is so funny and imaginative that never mind the 'Childrens Book' classification, all ages will love it.

Here Johnny and freinds add a little time travel to their list of adventures, and find themselves in in thier home town, but in 1941! A world where girls should play with their dolls rather than worry about technical things which they can't understand, does not go down well with a 90's female.

And as for 'Yo Less' Johnny's black friend, imagine the suprise when the 1940's shopkeeper finds out that 'Sambo' does speak rather good English!

Again another classic combination of humour, imagination and subtle social comment from an author who in my opimion should have far more recognition.

Time travel,bewiderment,adventure.What more could you want!
This is an amazing book.It may be a bit confusing but it is still lots of fun to read! If you like other Terry Pratchett books or if you liked 'Jonny and the Dead' you will love this. An essential buy.