Pishtosh Bullwash and Wimple

Pishtosh Bullwash & Wimple
story & pictures by James Flora/ published 1972 by Atheneum

I know I just did a Flora, but I pulled this from the back of my son's bookshelf and read it to him last night for the first time in a while and all I can say is WOW. What a crazy book. Somehow, this didn't scare my son and rather enchanted him actually. Even with all the talk of growling trees and leaking gravity and falling off the world. This book twists my brain up... can't imagine what it is doing to the fragile eggshell mind of the boy. What starts out innocent enough....

Pishtosh, Bullwash and Wimple are my very best friends.
Everyday I meet them by the swings and we play together.
We don't just play kid stuff either.
We go places and do things.
Pishtosh, Bullwash and Wimple know how to get to special
places -- places that even moms and dads don't know about.

And somewhere along the way, it turns bad....

"Something terrible has happened," panted Bullwash.
"Last night somebody stole the North Pole."
"And all of the gravity is leaking out," Pishtosh said.
"What's gravity?" I asked.
"That's what holds you on the earth, Wimple explained.
"If it all leaks out, everything will float into the sky and fall
off the world."

Even the stars and moon in this book understand how utterly horrible the above scenario would be. It is up to the boy and his three bizarre little friends to put things right before it is too late. Will they save the day, or will we all end up living on Mars? You'll just have to read it yourself and see.

Also by:
Kangaroo for Christmas
Grandpa's Farm
Stewed Goose
Great Green Turkey Creek Monster
Leopold the See-Through Crumbpicker
The Day the Cow Sneezed
Little Hatchy Hen
Grandpa's Witched Up Christmas
My Friend Charlie
Sherwood Walks Home
The Fabulous Firework Family
Grandpa's Ghost Stories by James Flora