The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron #1954Club

Title: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Author: Eleanor Cameron
Publication: Little, Brown & Company, hardcover, 1954
Genre: Juvenile fantasy
Setting: 20th century California

This review is for the #1954Club, hosted by StuckinaBook and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, in which bloggers are invited to read and review books that were published in a chosen year.

Description: David Topman is reading Dr. Doolittle in the Moon when his father sees a notice in the newspaper:

WANTED: A small space ship about eight feet long, built by a boy or two boys, between the ages of eight and eleven. The ship should be sturdy and well made, and should be of materials found at hand. Nothing need be bought. No adult should be consulted as to its plan or method of construction. An adventure and a chance to do a good deed await the boys who build the best space ship. Please bring your ship as soon as possible to Mr. Tyco M. Bass, 5 Thallo Street, Pacific Grove, California.

Dr. Topman says it must be a joke but David is sure he can design a space ship and build it with his friend Chuck during their spring vacation. Chuck is game and, once they get started, the actual construction is easier than either expected. Dramatically, they wheel the space ship to Thallo Street, where the unusual Mr. Bass is delighted to see them. He explains that he is a slightly different species, from a small planet only 50,000 miles away called Basidium, which is inhabited by Mushroom folk like himself. He believes his kin are facing great danger and he wants the boys to use the space ship to reach and assist them. David and Chuck’s adventure, from the crafting of the space ship to their improbable trip to Basidium, is entertaining and satisfying.

My Impression: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet is considered one of the most beloved children's science fiction novels of all time, and Cameron (1912-1996) wrote four subsequent titles in this series, which are quite collectible today. But this is the first time it really sunk in to me that the children reading it in 1954 and for some time thereafter could not have been sure man would ever walk on the moon. David’s father tells his son space exploration is not possible, “not for ten or twenty years yet, or maybe even fifty. Might be something to look forward to, though.” However, by the time I read this book, man had walked on the moon, so why shouldn’t David and Chuck fly a space ship of their own? It wasn’t as completely improbable to me as it was to that previous generation.

Eleanor Cameron’s parents were English but she was born in Canada and grew up in Berkeley, California. Cameron was a champion of children’s books her whole life and was very much influenced by Arthurian legend and fairy tales she read as a child. The Mushroom Planet books were written for her son David, who asked for a space story with magic. I enjoyed the whole series but my favorite of her books is The Court of the Stone Children (1973) which won the National Book Award. It is a timeslip about a lonely teen who plays an imaginary game in the courtyard of a San Francisco museum and starts seeing a mysterious beautiful girl. Coincidentally, Cameron was a huge fan of the Green Knowe books, which she read as an adult and I just reviewed. She corresponded with L.M. Boston and even visited her at the actual Green Knowe, The Manor at Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire, England, where I hope to go in June.

Source: Library (I think I lent my personal copy to a nephew)