Wings (The Bromeliad Trilogy Series #3)

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9-- The last book of a science-fiction trilogy about four-inch beings who were stranded when their scout ship crashed to earth 15,000 years ago. Truckers (1990) introduced Masklin, leader of a dwindling band of nomes hunting among the hedgerows in modern England. Completely ignorant of their origins, they are guided by a small black box they call "The Thing," which turns out to be a very powerful computer. In Diggers (1991, both Delacorte), they join a group of department-store nomes to live in a quarry. In this last installment, Masklin and friends sneak aboard the Concorde and head for Florida. Their mission: to place The Thing on a communications satellite so it can rouse their waiting mother ship. Nomes are foolishly courageous, companionable, literal and innocent creatures whose repeated misunderstandings confirm readers' sense of smug superiority. The bad puns generated by their mistakes in language may amuse some readers but annoy others. Neither as complex nor interesting as Mary Norton's "Borrowers" (Harcourt) or the Lilliputians of T. H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose (Berkley, 1984), Pratchett's creatures enact a blatantly obvious parable of broadening horizons. Yet the conversational style and fast-moving plot make this cheerful, unpretentious tale useful where there is a need for accessible science fiction, or where the previous volumes have been enjoyed.- Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MACopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
In book three of the ``Bromeliad,'' the nomes recover their spaceship and leave Earth. At the end of Diggers (p. 109), Gemma and the other nomes, trapped in a quarry surrounded by hostile humans, were saved by the appearance of an enormous spaceship. Wings is a flashback in which Masklin, Grunder, and Angalo sneak aboard a Concorde bound from London to Miami and make their way to within hailing distance of the space shuttle so that Thing can subvert its communication ports to summon their spaceship, which has been stored on the moon for thousands of years. In the process, they meet a band of wild nomes and are told that the world harbors thousands more. Gemma and Masklin leave for the stars; Grunder stays behind to communicate with humans and the other nomes. There is something a bit affected about naming a series after an orchid that harbors a colony of tiny frogs that leave their flower only when they outgrow it. Norton's Borrowers were entrancing, resourceful, and convincing; in comparison, nomes are naive, clumsy, and unlikely. Wings is resolutely earthbound, and while Pratchett can be wildly funny in his adult books, he seems tentative here. Still, young readers who liked the earlier volumes will want to read this one. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Daily Telegraph
'As always (Pratchett) is head and shoulders above the best of the rest. He is screamingly funny. He is wise. He has style... Splendid'


The Bookseller
'As funny as its predecessors'


Independent
'The triumphant conclusion of his "nome" trilogy'


Book Description
Somewhere out there, the ship is waiting to take them home . . .

Here's what Masklin has to do: Find Grandson Richard Arnold (a human!). Get from England to Florida (possibly steal jet plane for this purpose, as that can't be harder than stealing the truck). Find a way to the "launch" of a "communications satellite" (whatever those are). Then get the Thing into the sky so that it can call the Ship to take the nomes back to where they came from.

ANNOTATION

Three four-inch-high nomes, led by Masklin and aided by the tiny computer called Thing, set out on a dangerous journey, determined to contact the ship that brought them to Earth and to find a way home for all the nomes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The third installment of Terry Pratchett's hilarious trilogy, now available in this individual paperback!

The powerful conclusion to the trilogy, wherein the nomes search for a way back to their original home and learn more than they ever could have imagined about airports, humans, outer space, geese, and Floridian sandwiches.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Led by young Masklin, a small band of four-inch-tall nomes join a larger society of nomes living in a human department store. When they learn that the store is to be destroyed, rival factions come together to find safety, and learn the surprising truth about their origins. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Claudia Mills

In this third volume in Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy, three "nomes" travel from England to Florida (with plenty of humorous misadventures along the way) to try to send their computer-like "Thing" off on the space shuttle to contact the "Ship" which originally brought nomes to Earth 15,000 years ago. Pratchett's nomes bear striking similarities to Mary Norton's borrowers: both are races of tiny people who live around the margins of human civilization, trying to avoid ever being seen by humans, and surprised to find that humans don't view themselves as existing only to service the needs of nomes/borrowers. The story makes frequent references to events of the first two books and does not completely stand alone for those who have not been following the nomes' adventures from the beginning. But the reason to read on is Pratchett's consistently funny—and often wryly wise—voice. Every page has some hilarious and deliciously ridiculous line: "[The tree frogs] crawled onward. They didn't know the meaning of the word 'retreat.' Or any other word." The long-necked turtle is lucky in "having a long neck like that and being called a long-necked turtle. It'd be really awkward having a name like that if it had a short neck." And there are also wonderful insights into the nome-ish—and human—need for faith in something beyond themselves: "It's a big world. You need someone really ready to believe." Pratchett offers an appealing mix of genuine silliness and genuine philosophy—understanding how the two are sometimes one and the same. 2004 (orig. 1990), HarperTrophy/HarperCollins, Ages 8 to 12.

School Library Journal