A Box of Nothing

by Peter Dickinson

After the man in the closed, empty shop gives James a box of nothing, he finds himself in the Dump, a bizarre world filled with strangely altered rubbish and large intelligent rats.

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction

110 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.

Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a copy of this book in a Ziploc bag hidden in the wall of an old canal structure that today is essentially a cave. It was damp, dirty and smelly. After a few days with the pages exposed to the sunlight, I read it. Whoever left this particular book in the place where I found it knew what they were leaving. It was the perfect choice to create a real-life Neverending Story experience for someone else.

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A Box of Nothing” sees Dickinson take on portal fantasy. In one of those little magical shops that show up in Terry Pratchett, which are always run by an irascible old man and are rarely to be found in the same place twice, our hero, James, buys the titular box, which subsequently flings him into a magical world which is just a vastly larger version of the town dump. This conceit is not entirely original, but Dickinson makes clever enough use of it to ensure that his imaginary world is never dull. And the plot moves briskly from one adventure to the next, maintaining tension, if not really suspense. The downside of having the world on the other side of the portal be an exaggerated version of a real-world landmark is that it is quite obviously less real: thus, there is never any question but that James will, at the end of the book, be returned to the real world. Too avoid making the dump world seem completely unreal, Dickinson adds a coda at the end of the book that takes place in our world to demonstrate the reality of James’s trip in the only possible way, by showing the effect it had on him: in particular, the way that it made him a better person. If “A Box of Nothing” doesn’t come close to the power of the Changes trilogy, it’s nonetheless a quick (at a mere 110 pages, almost too quick) and enjoyable read.

[Kally Sheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Adventure

The author might have Written this book intended for younger children but I find it fascinating. It’s like looking at/through the universe (or the world) through the eyes and mind of children.

“Everything came out of nothing.”

Human members can be very opinionated. - Pg. 29

People throw everything away, so we have got everything! - Pg. 30

“It is less alive than it was when it was a cow and a plant. It is less alive than it will be if you eat it. It never chose to become chips and hamburgers, but since that has happened it would prefer to go through with the job. If you do not eat it, it will become garbage again. We do not like being garbage. We are trying not to be.” - The Burra, Pg. 31-32

“When you are ill you do not know what is wrong. You just feel something is, and you probably feel where. We are part of the Dump. We have its feelings. You might almost say we are its feelings. And we feel something is wrong.” - The Burra, Pg.47

“Everything becomes rubbish in the end. We sometimes wonder if people weren’t invented as an extra-quick way of making rubbish.” - The Burra, Pg.113

“Everything came out of nothing. The nothing is the seed, and it exploded itself into stars, and the universe started up.” - James, Pg. 150

[Anna Ryan-Punch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this reading it to my 9yo just as much as I loved reading myself at 9. What a weird, funny book that starts with a kid hiding from his mum while skipping school to finding lovely existentially-powered rubbish-gestalt friends (including friendly blankets that wrap themselves around you). Journeys to defeat militant rats and oversized seagulls, all the grinding way across endless dunes back to the Big Bang itself - and finding out what can really fit inside A Box Of Nothing. And it all makes perfect sense, of course, if you let it. 😊

[Francesca R · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'avevo lasciato a metà nei primi anni 90'... recuperato! Simpaticissimo.

[Doodles McC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an exception book for children, which 15 year old me really liked, reading to my younger brothers.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag läste halva boken när jag var kanske 8-9 och lade då ner den för att den var så konstig, men läste sen ut den något år senare. Fattade ingenting. Jag gillade den då ändå vill jag minnas, säkerligen för att den verkade så djup och sen dess har den liksom fått gå som något slags mästerverk i mitt huvud utan att jag reflekterat mer över det. Så det kändes lämpligt med en omläsning. Och jag fattar fortfarande ingenting. Det är på ett sätt bara en typisk barnbok, en missförstådd pojke på äventyr i en fantasivärld där onda och goda slåss mot varandra, det är ridderligheter och en stor kapplöpning. Men sen har den massa saker som inte känns så typiska, storyn liksom slungar sig fram och förklarar verkligen ingenting i onödan, och det är någon slags big-bang-hindu-energi-kretslopps grej i kombination med satir över konsumtionssamhället och en släng fascism och allmän kritik mot samhället. Mad max/planet of the apes/1984 och allt får plats i en diffus men ändå självklar form. Den lyckas på något sätt vara återhållsam genom hela. Men oj så frustrerande det är att inte förstå en barnbok. Får nog läsas om igen.

[John Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than anything else - this book introduced me to the ideas of existentialism and to a story that took the ending of the universe as seriously as it could. It also discussed garbage and debris in a way that helped me develop and re-examine how I dealt with trash.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

James gets a "box of nothing" at an old empty shop and then finds himself in a transformed dump. Grades 4+

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I listened to the British audio production of this book 30+ years ago …