The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
| Author | Eleanor Cameron |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Robert Henneberger |
| Cover artist | Robert Henneberger |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Mushroom Planet Books |
| Genre | Science fiction Children's |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 214 pp |
| ISBN | N/A |
| Followed by | Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet |
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet is a science fiction/fantasy children's novel written by Eleanor Cameron in 1954. It is set Pacific Grove, California, as well as on a tiny, habitable moon, "Basidium," in an invisible orbit 50,000 miles from Earth. The "Mushroom Planet," visited by the protagonists David Topman and Chuck Masterson, is covered in various types of mushrooms and is populated by little green people who are in a state of distress.
Plot summary
When two boys find an ad in a newspaper asking for two young boys to build a spaceship, they quickly construct one out of old tin and scrap wood, and bring it to the advertiser. This man is the mysterious Mr. Tyco Bass, an inventor and scientist. Using his marvelous stroboscopic polarizing filter he shows the boys a previously undetected satellite of the Earth, which he calls Basidium-X. He refits their spaceship, giving them some special fuel he invented to power it, and tells them to fly to the mushroom planet (after getting their parents' permission). He warns them that their trip will only be successful if they bring a mascot.
When it is time for launch, they grab David's hen, Mrs. Pennyfeather, at the last moment for a mascot, and rocket into space. They find Basidium-X to be a small, verdant world covered in soft moss and tree-size mushrooms. They quickly meet some residents of the mushroom planet, small men with large heads and slightly green skin, of the same people as the mysterious Mr. Bass. They tell the boys that their planet has had a crisis and that everyone is slowly dying of a mysterious sickness. The boys meet up with the king of the planet, the Great Ta, and end up solving the natives' problem, before returning to Earth.
Other editions
- Viaje Maravilloso Al Planeta de los Hongos (Spanish language edition), 1965
- Scholastic paperback, 1966
- Joy Street / Little, Brown paperback, 1988, cover by Peter Sis
- Little, Brown, 1998, cover by Kevin Hawkes
- Little, Brown, 2003, cover by Steve Vance
See also
- Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, the sequel volume to this story.