And Raymond Abrashkin; illustrated by Paul Sagsoorian

Lately my kids have been wanting to wake up early so they can get to school even earlier. I don’t know why, but I know it’s not a ploy so they can play videos games, so whatever the reason, I’m happy. To wake them up in the past has been a bit of a chore, though, what with the reminders every 5 minutes until one (or all) of us gets frustrated. So recently, I’ve started something new. When I go into the room to wake them up, I do so merely by turning on a light, sitting on my son’s bed, and reading aloud to them from a book.

The first book we tried was Sugar Creek Gang #10, Screams in the Night. That was a fairly healthy one, because it’s a Christian book and it started their day off with some kid discussions on ethics and behaviors. This second book isn’t Christian, but it’s imaginative and focused somewhat on nature, yet from a very unique perspective.

Danny, Joe, and Irene are friends who live on the same street with a Professor Bullfinch whose secret laboratory might very well be under surveillance by foreign spies. When the kids and a dog hide out in the barn where Professor Bullfinch is hiding his top-secret machine in order to warn him of the spy, they accidentally turn his machine on and, with the Professor in tow, all fall into its beam.

Unaware of what’s taken place and with the Professor knocked unconscious, it takes the children some time to realize that, rather than having been transported to another planet, they have in fact been miniaturized and are now sitting helpless on the barn floor. Their adventures take this crowd of half-inch humans outside in search of clover nectar, but insects, heights, and a sudden disappearance make hope for their rescue and survival doubtful. Ingenuity and a little bending of nature’s laws ultimately save the day, but only just barely.

Now I’ve long been a fan of tiny. In fact, the first stories I ever wrote I called “The CD Adventure” in which my siblings and I bought a CD player from a mad scientist, only to discover that he had hidden a device inside that turned us all the size of GI Joe characters (which we found out came to life with all the other toys at night). It’s a fascinating exercise of the imagination to consider what all might take place, were we so small in this huge world, and I think the authors of this book supplied their readers with pleasant fantasy while also adding some very interesting elements.

Some of the physical laws they play with deal with gravity and weight, suggesting that miniaturized people would fall from the heights more slowly due to wind resistance and thus could survive much farther drops than normal-sized people could. They also suggest that a human’s muscle mass on a tiny scale would be able to pick up objects relatively heavier than normal, or that their tiny body weights would make them walk as if they existed inside the moon’s gravity. These are all aspects of size that I never considered, but they were certainly interesting possibilities to ponder! I also liked the scene when they tried drinking through the surface tension of water droplets and it felt like they were biting rubber.

I’d assume that Danny Dunn has other books and that this is just one part of a series, but the kids and I liked it enough that if we came across another, we’d try it out. As fanciful as it was, I feel like the authors tried to teach some facts about science and nature inside an exciting story (even if their physics might be a little quirky). It’s not a must-read, of course, but if your kid needs something to read for a book report in science class, this one might be a good fit.

©2023 E.T.