Under the Mishmash Trees

by Dick King-Smith

A nonsense story about Og and Ut, the gombrizils, who make friends with Tumblerum Wollycobble, the slobbadunk.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Humor

107 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2005

About the author

Dick King-Smith was born and raised in Gloucestershire, England, surrounded by pet animals. After twenty years as a farmer, he turned to teaching and then to writing children's books.

Dick writes mostly about animals: farmyard fantasy, as he likes to call it, often about pigs, his special favorites. He enjoys writing for children, meeting the children who read his books, and knowing that they get enjoyment from what he does.

Among his well-loved books is Babe, The Gallant Pig, which was recently made into a major motion picture, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Dick lived with his wife in a small 17th-century cottage, about three miles from the house where he was born.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wtf!

It is not okay to trick a vegetarian into eating meat. It is not okay for that person to be humbly grateful that you did so, and to be glad to become your humble servant, working only for meat.

Beings who do not reproduce, or who give birth only once per couple per lifetime, will not evolve and will die out. Beings who have no appendages or means to manipulate their environment will not evolve to have sapience, language, and social skills.

This was published when the author was 83 years old. I'd be willing to bet it was random scribbles, brought together by publisher or wife. Obituary in The Guardian says he was fading before he passed. I guess it doesn't matter why he messed up, or even, in the long run, that he did. I will absolutely continue to read everything by him and recommend his works to you. Just not this one.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read aloud to my four year old son. He really enjoyed it. It has a pretty slow pace and is mostly a relational type story. The monsters (or aliens or whatever they are) help keep the young kid interested.

[Miranda Malonka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somebody was definitely drunk while writing this.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny at times gives you an impression of a nonsense filled story. Illustrations add fun to the story.

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a great book! Ut and Og found a creature they called Tum. Ut and Og were married. Ut and Og were very different then Tum. Ut and Og had 7 legs, and 3 eyes, and they were carnivores. Tum had no legs, and 1 eye. He was a plant eater. When Ut fed Tum meat, he stopped burping all the time. Soon, Ut layed an egg. Ut wouldn't sit on it for 6 months, and neither would Og, so Tum sat on it for 6 months. When the egg hatched, they discovered it was a girl. They named her Okay. Okay and Tum were great friends. You should read it!

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be a cute read, but it was a bit annoying to the kids with all the jibberish words. The kids chose it by the cover amongst a stack of Dick King-Smith books but both of them did not like it all and insisted I stop reading it...so we didn't finish it.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, the names and creatures were amusing, but after saying Tumblerum Wollycobble the slobbadunk out loud dozens of times, we abbreviated his name to T.W.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dick King-Smith has an extraordinary written voice for telling children's stories.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird book. I didn't care for it's messages either.