The Bomb That Followed Me Home (Rumpleville Chronicles) [Hardcover]

Cevin Soling (Author), Steve Kille (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2007 | Series: Rumpleville Chronicles

We've all heard of stray cats following kids home or a lost puppy yelping by a kitchen door for food, but did you know that even a wayward little bomb needs love and attention too? When a bomb, looking for a friend, follows a young boy home, trouble breaks out in a suburban household that is just trying to keep peace with the angry neighbors next door.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Monk Media; 1 edition (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976777126
• ISBN-13: 978-0976777120
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 6.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "A bomb's a big responsibility", January 25, 2009

By 

Linda Bulger (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bomb That Followed Me Home (Rumpleville Chronicles) (Hardcover)

If it looks like a kid's book and can be read in ten minutes, it probably IS a kid's book, right? Not necessarily. The Bomb That Followed Me Home (Rumpleville Chronicles) (Rumpleville Chronicles) is a wicked little fusion of fairly tale and satire. Definitely not for any kids I know, except as prelude to a guided discussion of its odd concepts.

The story line is a bit "cracked:" a little bomb follows a boy home from school and he begs his parents to let him keep it. They say no ("A bomb's a big responsibility") and while they're trying to fob the bomb off on somebody else ("...the Department of Defense, the National Guard, and even the Weathermen ...") it does indeed make a mess of the house and prove Mom right. The family has a vendetta going with the neighbors, who speak in gibberish and show expansionist tendencies by letting their hedge overrun the property line; in the end, rather ambiguously, they "give" the bomb to the neighbors. Is that a gesture of friendship, or ... the KABOOM at the end of the book leaves a sickening uncertainly as to the outcome.

This is the first book I've read from the Rumpleville Chronicles, all of which apparently follow the fractured "fairy tale meets social commentary" theme. Author Cevin Soling packs a lot of satirical ideas into a few words. The illustrations by Steve Kille are action-packed and rich with sly details; don't miss the family portraits on the walls, or the crazed anarchist looking for his lost bomb, or the evil vegetation of the neighbors' hedge. The vehicle is somewhat slight for the satire to be sufficiently developed; I acknowledge that I'm starting far back in the field when it comes to "bomb humor" and it never quite brought me on board, but it's a clever little story and a feast for the eyes.

Linda Bulger, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Not a Dog, It's a Bomb With a Long Fuse, February 21, 2009

By 

Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bomb That Followed Me Home (Rumpleville Chronicles) (Hardcover)

The Bomb That Followed Me Home is an unusual, twisted little tale that tells the story of a young boy who suddenly notices something is following him one day as he walks home from school. This wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, except for one fact: The thing that is following the boy happens to be a bomb with a long, unlit fuse. The boy takes the bomb home to meet his parents, notices the bomb is cute, wants to cuddle with it, etc. He treats the bomb as a pet, and his parents also treat the situation the same way. They don't want the bomb in the house. They feel that their son will not be able to take care of it. They look for someone to adopt the bomb, but to no avail.

If this sounds like a bizarre book, that's because it was intended that way. The Bomb That Followed Me Home is part of a series of books known as the Rumpleville Chronicles- a collection of books known for its social commentary combined with the story line of a fairy tale. This book is aimed at the older, high- school age student who doesn't mind a little more unusual read and will possibly enjoy trying to decide what different symbols in the book represent.

The Bomb That Followed Me Home has an unusual title and this is part of what attracted me to it and convinced me to give it a read. The uniqueness of this book doesn't end, of course, with the title. It goes all the way through to the story and also to the illustrations. The illustrations actually bothered me a little at first because, while they feature drawings/paintings, they don't offer the bright, cheery illustrations found in books aimed at younger children. The illustrations found here feature darker colors and a dark mood. At first, they may not seem very eye- catching but there are actually some humorous things going on in these illustrations and those who bother to look more closely will know what I am talking about. Not only will you notice unusual things, but you will also realize that the darkness of the illustrations fits the mood of the book. Like I said, I didn't like this at first, but I slowly grew to appreciate this fact as I continued to read.

The Bomb That Followed Me Home is an interesting book that makes a useful tool to explain the concepts of satire, analogy, and more. It is a dark, twisted tale that seems completely ridiculous at first, but takes on greater meaning as you turn the pages. It scores high marks for originality and it ranks as one of the more interesting, darkly amusing tales I have read in a long time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that overcomes the absurd premise, January 11, 2009

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bomb That Followed Me Home (Rumpleville Chronicles) (Hardcover)

The potentially explosive (pun intended) nature of a story about a bomb following a young boy home from school is defused (pun again intended) by the lighthearted and humorous manner in which Soling delivers the story. When the main character realizes that a bomb is following him home from school, he tries to avoid it by cutting through the yard of his mean neighbors, the Greenspans. The rendition of how Mrs. Greenspan uses decipherable gibberish in her yelling of "Get off my lawn!" is enough to make the book worth reading. I can imagine how children will giggle when they read that passage or have it read to them.
Once the boy gets home and feels the bomb snuggling against his leg, he asks his mother if he can keep it. Of course she says no and so his dad asks government agencies such as the Department of Defense and the National Guard and then even the Weathermen if they want the bomb. All of these agencies decline so they are stuck with a homeless bomb that has now been called Rusty. Finally, they decide to give the bomb to the Greenspans and the story ends with their side dismantling a vengeance hedge that the Greenspans had planted many years ago.
The absurdity of the bomb that acts like a stray puppy takes what appears to be a ridiculous premise and turns it into a story that children will love. With the artwork exaggerated in a style that will attract and entertain young eyes, this book also manages to lampoon authority figures in a humorous way.