Book Description

In a world whose seasons are defined by Christmas sales and Spring Fashions, hundreds of tiny nomes live in the corners and crannies of a human-run department store. They have made their homes beneath the floorboards for generations and no longer remember -- or even believe in -- life beyond the Store walls.

Until the day a small band of nomes arrives at the Store from the Outside. Led by a young nome named Masklin, the Outsiders carry a mysterious black box (called the Thing), and they deliver devastating news: In twenty-one days, the Store will be destroyed.

Now all the nomes must learn to work together, and they must learn to think -- and to think BIG.

Part satire, part parable, and part adventure story par excellence, master storyteller Terry Pratchett’s engaging trilogy traces the nomes’ flight and search for safety, a search that leads them to discover their own astonishing origins and takes them beyond their wildest dreams.

Card catalog description
After generations of existing in the human-sized world, a group of four-inch-high nomes discover their true nature and origin, with the help of a black square called the Thing.

About the Author
With sales of over 30 million copies, Terry Pratchett's brilliantly funny and subtly wise books have been translated into more than 25 languages. In addition to his novels about the fantastic flat planet Discworld, Mr. Pratchett has written several children's books, including The Bromeliad Trilogy and the books about Johnny Maxwell: Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Bomb, and Johnny and the Dead. Mr. Pratchett won the Carnegie Medal for his first young adult novel set in Discworld, the amazing maurice and his educated rodents, which was also named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, one of the New York Public Library's 100 Books for Reading and Sharing, and a Bank Street College Children's Book Committee Book of Outstanding Merit. Mr. Pratchett lives in the English chalk country.

ANNOTATION

After generations of existing in the human-sized world, a group of four-inch-high nomes discover their true nature and origin, with the help of a black square called the Thing.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In a World Whose Seasons are Defined by Christmas sales and Spring Fashions, hundreds of tiny nomes live in the corners and crannies of a human-run department store. They have made their homes beneath the floorboards for generations and no longer remember -- or even believe in -- life beyond the Store walls. Until the day a small band of nomes arrives at the Store from the Outside. Led by a young nome named Masklin, the Outsiders carry a mysterious black box (called the Thing), and they deliver devastating news: In twenty-one days, the Store will be destroyed. Now all the nomes must learn to work together, and they must learn to think -- and to think Big. Part satire, part parable, and part adventure story par excellence, master storyteller Terry Pratchett's engaging trilogy traces the nomes' flight and search for safety, a search that leads them to discover their own astonishing origins and takes them beyond their wildest dreams.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly