Customer Reviews

Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint (A Young Pioneer Book)

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Few stories, much less story series, can be remembered as vividly over the years as can the Danny Dunn books - a tribute to the authors and their product. In this story Danny and the usual cast (less Irene, who no doubt was absent due to morality standards of the day) are inadvertently launched into space through the an accident with the wondrous anti-gravity paint. Despite the initial mishap, all seems to be going well until the spacefarers discover that they cannot activate the switch that will return them to Earth! Once again Danny must rise to the occasion and save the day before it is too late.

As with all the Danny Dunn books, readers are painlessly introduced to science concepts while reading an absorbing tale. Although some of the ideas in the story seem a bit dated now, the plot development and characters make this story an excellent selection.

Danny Dunn! One of the best children's book serieses of all time. I guess I'll review all of them that I can remember. They are indeed Hard To Find these days. But I recommend them all, if you can find 'em.

This one is about a trip to space via Anti-Gravity Paint, with Professor Bullfinch, Danny, Joe, and the irascible Dr. Grimes. You sort of feel the lack of Irene to complete the chemistry, but oh well. I love this stuff.

I read this book in the third grade, and I vividly recall how it opened up the world of literature for me -- it made me realize that books told stories, that they weren't simply these things you had to have for school and carry around. The tale was interesting and imaginative (after all, who DOESN'T want to be able to float around, like you're swimming in the air?), and led me first to the other Danny Dunn books, and then into the wide world of reading. This book saved one little kid (me) from condemnation to eternal television, thus justifying completely the author's efforts.

And after I read this book, I really had to question the conditions I saw in shows such as Lost In Space and Star Trek. How, in the middle of space like that, did their vessels all have gravity? Golly, it's astounding what reading will do for a young person's mind!

First off - Irene wasn't in the series yet. She wouldn't show up until the third book (Homework Machine.) It may well be that's why this and Desert Island were first, to get them out of the way.

According to my parents, space flight did indeed seem a hundred years away in 1956. I'll have to take their word on that. But all the same, the way they got the ship to fly doesn't seem all that outlandish (though like Star Trek-style beaming, it would require a LOT of energy) particularly for when it was written.

And like most of the rest of the series (read my review for Smallifying Machine) it did a wonderful job of explaining basic science to its audience. I still remember (my mother had the original hardback from her childhood) the illustration of the ship over Mars - looking at its surface, with Phobos a jagged rock in orbit above it, and being awed by that and other things out in space.

You can forgive the bang-up ending - the authors would get better with time on that. It may be a bit dated now but it offers an interesting perspective.