The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet

"For a few seconds it was terrifying! Everything seemed to happen at once. First there was the blasting roar, and the boys were flung backward in their seats so violently by the forward impact of the ship that the breath was knocked out of them. At the same time poor Mrs. Pennyfeather lost her wits entirely and squawked and flapped and flew in their faces, beating her wings so wildly that they were completely blinded by her." If only it were possible to give a book more than five stars. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet was one of my favorite books as a kid. It tells the story of David Topman and Chuck Masterson, two boys "between the ages of eight and eleven" who, with the help of Mr. Tycho M. Bass, build and pilot a slim, beautiful spaceship to a small (35 miles in diameter) planet named Basidium-X. My poor words can't begin to express how wonderful is this book. I've read other books I loved as a child - No Flying in the House comes instantly to mind - as an adult and found them a hideous disappointment. But The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet still DOES it for me. And that's pretty darn cool. If you're thinking of buying this book for your child....do it. If you loved it as a child yourself, and are wondering if it could possibly hit you as hard decades later....oh YES.

The first of Cameron's Mushroom Planet books, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet still casts a spell many years after its first publication. David and Chuck, two best friends, build a rocketship (well, a full-sized model of one) after reading a mysterious newspaper advertisement asking for just such a spaceship and promising "adventure" to the boys who bring the best spaceship to an address that they're not even sure exists. Mystery piles atop mystery and revelation on revelation, until the two boys find themselves on a rescue mission to a tiny, invisible planet orbiting only a short distance (astronomically speaking) from the Earth itself!The writing is smooth, straightforward, and engaging, and Cameron's characters are sketched out with clear and emphatic detail. There is a bizarre, almost dreamlike quality to the book itself, due at least in part to the juxtaposition of a strong and clear respect for and use of scientific approaches and terminology with truly mystical phenomena that cannot be explained by any science known to man. The scientific wizard Mr. Bass -- there's no better way to describe him -- creates inventions that sound scientific, may even BE scientific in a way, and yet his work is surrounded by all the enigmatic atmosphere of the most mysterious sorceror. At the same time, the rescue and its conclusion rest on firm, rational grounds, so that we keep being anchored back to reality.A fascinating book and well worth the read even if -- or perhaps especially if -- you are an adult who is trying to remember why some kids' books still stick with you.

Just on a fluke, I looked this series up on the Internet. I had remembered these books and was beginning to think they were a dream or something I had conjured up as I couldn't find them anywhere at our local libraries. I too loved them as a child and used to turn my doll cradle updside down and use it as a space ship so that I could join the book characters on their trips. I was really glad to know I wasn't crazy and that these stories did, and still do, exist. They are a great set of books for a young child.

Oh, how I loved this book when I first read it! It must have been around 1962 when I discovered it in the school library. I was absolutely taken with the story of Mr. Bass, and the little green planet and the ship the boys built to go there. It was the beginning of the manned space age, I reading this book, I could imagine myself on board with the crew, the chicken (!), and the little oxygen cylinder going "pheep..pheep..."Take it from an ex-eight year old; this is a wonderful book.

This book, the first in the Mushroom Planet series, enthralled me as a youth more than 30 years ago, spurring me to read the entire series. It strikes the perfect chord for young readers, especially boys, at that age when they still possess enough innocence and ignorance of reality to believe in the possibility of their own trip to an "invisible" planetoid. The characters are written well, with a spirit of youthful exuberance and confidence that draws you into their experience as if you, too, were along for the ride. I read it again as a young adult and, although tempered by my realization of the realities of science vis-a-vis the boys' accomplishments, it still was a stirring read. A children's classic!