"When Thomas Tull was seven years old he stopped growing, which was bad, and began shrinking, which was worse. By the time he was seven and a half none of his clothes fitted him at all; and when his eighth birthday arrived he had to stand on a box to blow his candles out."
These are the opening lines of The Vanishment of Thomas Tull. Don't you love that word 'vanishment'. Thomas is clearly shrinking - will he completely vanish? Mrs Tull is hysterical with fear and berates her long suffering husband Mr Tull to do something! A cast of interesting characters arrive after Mr Tull advertises :
"1000 Pounds REWARD
One thousand pounds reward is offered to any man woman or child who is able to prevent Master Thomas Tull of 158 Balaclava Road from shrinking away. A further one thousand pounds will be paid to anyone who can restore this well-loved but unfortunate boy to his former size."
The family try food cooked by world famous chefs and doctors from around the world like the Honorable Doctor Chop-Chop from China who uses an Enlargero-Phonotron - but it does not work only his rabbit gets bigger. Other people come trying to claim the reward. A little girl even tries to blow Thomas up with a bicycle pump. Thomas also dances with a duchess and flies with a Baron but Thomas keeps shrinking and then one day he disappears! Here is a hint - all the downstairs furniture from the Tull's house also disappears that night.
There are detailed line drawings all through this book. I especially like the page where Dr Gristlebone tries to stretch Thomas. This is another one of those little out of print books but you might be lucky and find a copy in your library I even found one this year in a local second hand bookshop. You might like to read about Janet and Allan Ahlberg here.
No comments:
Post a Comment