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Boom!

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An explosive, highly charged, and hilarious middle-grade adventure from Mark Haddon, acclaimed author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

From the moment that Jim and his best friend, Charlie, bug the staff room and overhear two of their teachers speaking to each other in a secret language, they know there's an adventure on its way.

But what does "spudvetch" actually mean, and why do Mr. Kidd's eyes flicker with fluorescent blue light when Charlie says it to him? Perhaps Kidd and Pearce are bank robbers talking in code. Perhaps they're spies. Perhaps they are aliens. Whatever it is, Jimbo and Charlie are determined to find out.

There really is an adventure on its way. A nuclear-powered, one-hundred-ton adventure with reclining seats and a buffet car. And as it gathers speed and begins to spin out of control, it can only end one way . . . with a BOOM!

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

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10548 people want to read

About the author

Mark Haddon

81 books3,999 followers
Mark Haddon is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, the Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for his work.

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5 stars
988 (18%)
4 stars
1,525 (28%)
3 stars
1,908 (35%)
2 stars
698 (12%)
1 star
279 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 648 reviews
Profile Image for Phrynne.
4,035 reviews2,731 followers
December 22, 2019
I really enjoyed this, especially because the last two books I read were only just okay. This one was nicely written, funny, smart and a very easy read.

The book begins in a fairly normal household where the father is out of work, the mother is working in a well paid job, the big sister is dating an unwise choice and the young brother is not doing as well as he could at school. Things appear everyday normal until two teachers suddenly appear to be doing strange things and a series of weird events lead to a whole different story.

The humour is a bit like Terry Pratchett's but at middle school level and the book is definitely only for readers who are comfortable with the irrational and silly. I loved it.
Profile Image for James.
505 reviews
September 30, 2020
'Boom' (2009) by Mark Haddon - lauded and famed author of the better known 'The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time'. Boom is Haddon's updated, improved and as he says ' significantly rewritten' version of his earlier novel 'Gridzbi Spudvetch' (1992).

Boom is loads of face paced and silly fun - it's an adventure involving schoolboy Jimbo, his best friend Charlie, mysterious (to say the least) teachers and some very funny spiders!

Clearly aimed at a younger age group and different demographic to 'Curious Incident', this is an entirely different kind of book . As such, 'Boom' succeeds where presumably 'Gridzbi' failed - but readers shouldn't expect a prototype 'Curious'.

Good fun and well worth a read.
Profile Image for Gregory Baird.
196 reviews789 followers
August 12, 2016
Clunk!
From a financial perspective, it makes perfect sense that this book, originally published in 1992 under the title Gridzbi Spudvetch! , is being given a second life nearly twenty years later. Its author, Mark Haddon, has since achieved literary renown as the author of 2003’s book club favorite The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and the lesser known but equally enjoyable A Spot of Bother . It’s been nearly four year’s since the latter’s publication, and with no new adult novel on the horizon (for the time being), it makes sense to haul a title out of the archives before people forget about Haddon. Similar action was taken with Yann Martel after the roaring success of his Life of Pi , when The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios – an older collection of short stories – was repackaged for the public. Adult fans of Haddon’s ‘previous’ novels are bound to feel intrigued. Toss in the fact that Boom! was actually written for the young adult market, which is enjoying strong sales in a comparatively bleak market for books, and everything seems perfect. For both Haddon and the publisher, of course.

The problem with repackaging these older titles is that they inevitably seem hopelessly amateur compared with the author’s current work. In Martel’s case, Facts was the work of an experimental author struggling to find a voice; essentially throwing ideas out on paper to see if they worked. Unfortunately, more often than not they didn’t. For Haddon, well, he had ten extra years of writing expertise by the time Curious Incident hit bookshelves, and boy does it show. Which is odd because in the forward Haddon claims to have extensively edited the old manuscript to fix all the wonky writing and plot holes (as well as to update the technology to incorporate cell phones and iPods). I say this claim is odd because the sound that would best describe Boom! is rather a deafening Clunk! Clunk goes the dialogue, stilted and unnatural (and oddly enough featuring dated references to Snakes on a Plane, among other pop culture dinosaurs, for something that was allegedly worked over to be up to the minute). Clunk goes the plot, which awkwardly lurches forward and still features an unseemly amount of plot holes. Clunk goes Haddon’s sense of humor, so sharp and biting in his two adult novels. Indeed, if Haddon intended to snatch some of the audience of the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, then Jeff Kinney has absolutely nothing to fear, because this book lacks all of the wit and whimsy that makes those so enjoyable.

Is Boom! an awful read? No. It’s harmless. But it’s also imminently forgettable; had the publisher left it out of print I doubt anyone would have missed it very much. Its major crime is that it won’t appeal to either Haddon’s adult audience or the young adult audience it aims for. Both sets are better served waiting for something new.
Profile Image for Bidisha Ray.
79 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2025
nicely written!
I believe this to be a thrilling read for young readers, my sense of thrill might have been eroded due to an imagination saturated by wanton adulthood. however, the elements such as the joviality of Charlie and Jimbo's friendship, charlie's devil may care attitude, the idiosyncrasies of their parents and jimbo's sibling tickled my bones. definitely refreshing.
I found the alien plot slightly drab along the way. as if it were trying to be humorous yet complex. my soggy mind was trying to figure out if this was a metaphor for something, how very boring and adult-like, I plead guilty.
between Bunny's adult viciousness and Death of a Salesman's visceral despondency, this was a welcome mix of innocent joy.
Profile Image for Baba.
4,074 reviews1,517 followers
June 10, 2018
A typically farcical story from the King of farce himself, Mark Haddon. Technically a 'speculative fiction' novella, but it's completely overrun by the farce and comedy, which isn't that bad.
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Best friends Jim and Charlie overhear two of their teachers talking a fantastical language, and they could've sworn they saw a blue glimmer in their eyes... thus begins a lighthearted, and at times quite funny tale.
Profile Image for Selene.
728 reviews174 followers
May 22, 2018
I read this to my grade 6 class. They enjoyed most parts of the novel.
Profile Image for Toshita.
593 reviews60 followers
June 28, 2024
If I had to describe this book in one sentence: A kid appropriate and better version of Slaughterhouse-Five. I enjoyed this book. One of my friends recommended it to me while we were at a book sale and I ended up buying it because it was only 10 cents. Overall a fun and silly read that I'm sure most 10-12 year olds are sure to enjoy. The writing wasn't of the best quality but it did the job. Overall a quick fun read.
Profile Image for Naomi.
470 reviews10 followers
August 22, 2022
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2022: #07 Un libro con una onomatopeya en el título

Mmm... Supongo que es divertido e interesante, pero al mismo tiempo no soy el público objetivo para este tipo de lecturas. Me dio un poco lo mismo, si he de decir la verdad.
Profile Image for Tim.
Author 8 books49 followers
May 28, 2010
This is an updated edition of a book originally published in Britain in 1992 as "Gridzbi Spudvetch." My knowledge of children's literature is not that encyclopedic (not even pertaining to authors whose books I have enjoyed in the past), it just says so in the foreword. I believe I reviewed one of Haddon's picture books years ago, and I quite liked "Curious Incident..." ("Spot of Bother" is on my bedside table..but it has been for a while--too many paying review gigs)

All that's beside the point. This is hysterical. I read a lot of middle grade and YA titles that indicate they are "hilarious" "uproarious" "laugh out loud." Many of them make me smile. This one is a stitch! Starts out completely in the realm of possibility and then, as Jim would say, "goes pear shaped."

Jim is just a regular kid. With a slight-slag of an older sister who is dating a real loser. His dad is out of work and his mother has a great job. Jim's not so great at school. When his sister tells him the teachers are talking about sending him to a reform-type school, Jim becomes paranoid. His best friend Charlie's there to save the day with a plan & walkie-talkies...but what they hear listening in to the teacher's meeting blows them away. Two of their most regular teachers are talking in gibberish. Charlie becomes obsessed--to the point of breaking into one of the teachers' house...then a weirdo with a glowing blue finger threatens them at a chicken shop--

And that's all you're going to get out of me.

I DID laugh out loud several times. This reminds me most of Terry Pratchett's "Johnny Maxwell" series crossed with Hitchhiker's Guide sprinkled with Doctor Who (or maybe "The Sarah Jane Adventures"). If you've a young fan of humor or science fiction or books of any nature, this is the book for them. One caveat: it is not one of those "translated" British novels; the slang is intact and can be a bit thick (that's the American thick, rather than the British thick where it can mean "stupid"). Heck, I think adults should read this too. And I really want to see animated versions of the monkey faced spiders of Plonk!
Profile Image for Paula.
Author 2 books252 followers
January 27, 2011
"Boom! is a version of your old-style Something Is Very Strange About the Teachers at My School story. You know that story. They're aliens, or monsters, or she collects the teeth of children for nefarious purposes. Love that storyline. Who hasn't thought it at one time or another? Even in college, I was pretty sure a respected art history professor of mine had probably wrested herself into life from the mud at the bottom of an archaeological dig in Sicily."

Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...
Profile Image for Betsy.
Author 11 books3,275 followers
July 28, 2010
One Sentence Review: If you didn't know it was science fiction going in, the sudden switchover might shock you, but really this is just a fun mystery with some pretty goofy sci-fi elements (and copious Britishisms) in the mix.
95 reviews5 followers
March 7, 2018
I feel bad being hard on this book because I’m not the target audience. That being said, there are juvenile fiction books that still have kept me more than engaged (The Giver comes to mind) as an adult. So I won’t hold back...

I read this book having enjoyed A Curious Incident, that I have re-read a few times. I didn’t know it was a juvenile fiction, but that didn’t stop me. I thought Haddon’s foreword was really insightful having finished the book. The book is SO slow and took me forever to read. Each chapter was a slog to get through. There were moments of promise, but overall the book just felt disjointed. It felt silly with the ‘robot language’, but maybe that’s as an adult reader. The adults are useless, and maybe this is also as an adult reader, but is it really a good idea to have kids that smoke, beat each other up, drive under age, steal and run away with out some sort of moral lesson follow-through? It’s just a book and maybe I’m not adventurous but, I wouldn’t recommend this book to any adult or juvenile.
1 review
August 1, 2014
This book follows the unexpected(and rather odd) journey of a teenage boy Jimbo, his best friend Charlie and his 16-year-old Becky. This all starts with Becky attempting to prank her little brother,telling him that he was going to be expelled from school, and that she had heard the teachers discussing it in the staff room after school. Jimbo, stressing over the matter, turns to his best friend for advice. Charlie, being the far-fetched schemer he is, hatches a plan to place a walkie talkie in the staff room and then listen through to the other end. They soon discover that Becky was lying, but that was not the only thing to come out of this. Just as they are about to pack up and head home, the boys begin to overhear a strange conversation, between the two most boring teachers in entire school, some might describe it as weird alien language. This leads to an unimaginabley overwhelming mission of uncovering the truth behind their suspicious behaviour.

I found this book almost impossible to put down. It think it's because it starts with such a simple idea. The day-to-day life of a any kid at a school age level, and then wham, suddenly everything is happening for these characters, and you can almost live through the storyline, and you can picture it so clearly because it almost feels like it could happen to you. It takes you into a fictional reality. (which for me really proves how great a book is). Mark has done a truly brilliant job in describing the emotions and interactions between the characters. (I especially think he nailed the brother-sister relationship between Becky and Jimbo)

A character I could relate to, not just to myself personally, but I felt I could almost match and place into the life of a teenage girl was Becky. At the start of the book, she appears to be very edgy and tough, and Jimbo describes her as being 'different' compared to who she was a couple of years ago. To me I think that really does put a bit of a realistic spin onto her character right from the start, because identity crisis is something everyone goes through at some point in their lives. (largely in the teenage years)But something I loved even more than this instantly relatable image; was her development as a character throughout the story line. You really do get to see a lot of layers of her personality, and she does begin to realize where her priorities lie.

I would recommend this book to anyone aged 10+
This is because I think 10 is the perfect age to start reading a piece of material like this yet would peak an interest in a lot of different age groups. It is overall a very exciting storyline, so a 10-year old would not get bored when reading, but it does have some important morals that I think that age is mature enough to pick up on; if not understand the consequences of certain decisions made by characters throughout the book. Overall I think this was an absoulutley fantastic read.
Profile Image for Jenny T.
1,012 reviews45 followers
June 3, 2010
This was a strange little book featuring a very likeable young boy named Jim who discovers an alien plot to re-populate the Earth entirely with science fiction fans and who must, consequently, save the world. On the whole, great fun and a quick read. Easily 4 stars.

However, this is intended as a children's lit, for ages 8-12, and as such it fails. Too many adult themes (violence, smoking, etc) and too many old nerd references (seriously, what 8-year-old knows what a Vogon is?) make this a less-than-ideal kids' book. Therefore, 2 stars in that department.

Compromise, since Jimbo is such a great character, and the book presents a family in which the mother is a high-powered businesswoman and the father prefers gourmet cookery, reversing "traditional" gender roles in a very positive way (without being at all preachy or ironic). 3 stars.
Profile Image for Ruth Govaerts.
591 reviews35 followers
November 22, 2017
Boom! was een ontspannend jeugdboek met een mysterieus en absurd plot. Ik vond het verhaal beter worden naar het einde toe. Het las erg vlot en was heel simplistisch geschreven. Soms vond ik het zelfs iets te eenvoudig geschreven. Ik vind het lezen van young adult boeken doorgaans verfrissend, maar ik word graag uitgedaagd met een iets diepgaander verhaal en een bredere woordenschat. Dat miste ik hier een beetje. Het zou nochtans wel een goed introductieboek zijn als je Engels leert. Als kind had ik er vast meer van genoten.

Lees: ik heb mezelf al enkele jaren ontpopt tot een vervelende, omhooggevallen lezer die zoekt naar diepgang en zeurt over een te eenvoudige schrijfstijl. Ik hoop stiekem dat mensen denken dat ik verstandig ben, maar ik schrijf regelmatig dikke DT - en constructiefouten in mijn reviews. YOLO!
Profile Image for Kaethe.
6,569 reviews534 followers
July 14, 2014
I can understand why this didn't sell under the original title of nonsense words, but I'm not at all sure that "Boom!" is better. I'm also bugged by the rocket since there aren't any rockets in the story.

But the adventure is good, the families of the two boys are interestingly developed, and the mystery of what those two teachers were talking about is a clever one.

Charlie and Jimbo behave realistically, which adds to the suspense and the humor.
Profile Image for Nitzhia Peleg.
150 reviews7 followers
April 9, 2021

כל ילד חושב שהמורים שלו הם חייזרים לפעמים, אבל יש כאלה שגם צודקים, ועליהם בדיוק מספר הספר. ג'ים וצ'רלי מגלים במקרה שהמורים שלהם חייזרים מכוכב לכת רחוק. הם עוקבים אחריהם, סופגים איומים ומכות, ובסופו של דבר מגיעים לחלל ומופתעים.

תוך כדי עלילה אנחנו מתוודעים לדמויות מוזרות כמו ההורים של ג'ים, אחותו, החבר שלה ועוד. לכל אחד יש תפקיד בעלילה, ודרך משלו להוסיף נופך פרוע לסיפור שגם ככה לא היה שגרתי.

מי שמצפה לספר עם העומק והיופי של "המקרה המוזר של הכלב בשעת לילה" עלול להתאכזב, אבל מי שיפריד יכול להנות. מדובר בספר מוקדם של האדון שלא הצליח בעבר, מסיבות שונות, ועבר שידרוג ושינוי בעקבות הצלחת "המקרה המוזר". קליל, סוחף, כיפי וקצת משוגע. זה הכל.
Profile Image for Emily Kathleen.
282 reviews29 followers
May 16, 2021
3.5 stars.

I was not expecting it to be a science fiction that's for sure. It was almost like a children's version of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. It was hard to put down but not my favourite genre.
Profile Image for SuzannevHaaften.
210 reviews
May 26, 2021
Eigenlijk een kinderboek, maar net als bij 'Het Wonderbaarlijke Voorval met de Hond in de Nacht' is het ook leuk en geschikt voor volwassenen. Leest lekker snel en spannend.
Profile Image for Rehan Abd Jamil.
655 reviews34 followers
March 21, 2017
If you love curious incident of the dog in night-time, this is a book for you. For an unexplainable reason, I do enjoyed reading it..
Profile Image for Cudeyo.
1,257 reviews65 followers
September 4, 2022
Reconozco que tengo que tener algún problema, porque no es la primera vez que me pasa. En realidad, me pasa casi siempre. Y es que por mucho que digan que la historia está cargada de humor, a mí no me ha causado ni siquiera una risilla. No entiendo el humor, pero os juro que sé reirme ¡eh!

Jim, James, Jimbo son los nombres que le dan al protagonista: Jimbo los amigos, Jim los adultos, James cuando se mete en problemas. Es el hijo pequeño de un matrimonio en el que el padre está en paro y hundido en depresión, la madre ha conseguido un trabajo mejor pagado del que tenía antes el padre, lo que también ha sido un golpe para el macho alfa y la hermana mayor se ha liado con un motero con la cara llena de cicatrices de acné. Su único consuelo es su mejor amigo, Charlie, especializado en meterse en líos. Y menudo lío es este último: dos profesores con un lenguaje secreto, una conspiración a nivel global, y unas misteriosas pulseras.

Es una historia surrealista, no, lo siguiente. Resulta de lectura entretenida en cierta forma, durante la cual el lector en vez de una sonrisa plantada en la cara, tiene las cejas subidas hasta el nacimiento del pelo. Porque la situación es de un absurdo alucinante.
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