Now, I detest children. Can't stand them, especially when they screech or scream in places where they should be quiet. Public libraries spring to mind. However, if I was forced to answer a question about what sort of book I would recommend to a parent, I would choose the Bottersnikes and Gumbles series.
Now, while they have been heard of in the UK, some of you may not have heard of them, so I'll try and give the general gist of the story.
In the Australian Bush, so the story goes, there live two very strange species of intelligent creature. The Gumbles are short creatures with fluffy ears and very flexible bodies: they can be stretched and squashed without harming them. They clean up junk, and they're generally good natured, ready to give a helping hand. Problem is, they're also helpless when they're laughing, and they're slower than their adversaries and would-be slavers, the Bottersnikes.
The Bottersnikes are fat, almost reptilian creatures with long ears that get red hot when angry (which is a hell of a lot of the time) and almost terminally lazy. They shrink when wet, and eat garbage. Problem is, they also would love nothing more than to have slave labour, and they often try to enslave the Gumbles, by forcing them into jam tins when they capture them.
The first book, Bottersnikes and Gumbles, tells the story of how the two species encountered each other. The second, Gumbles on Guard, involves the travails of the Gumbles trying to save a lyrebird chick from both a ravenous fox and the Bottersnikes. Gumbles in Summer involves the King of the Bottersnikes being assassinated, as well as the Gumbles trying to prevent the Bottersnikes from effectively starting bushfires. And Gumbles in Trouble involves the Gumbles and Bottersnikes being trapped together in an old shed.
Anyone else has read these?
Now, while they have been heard of in the UK, some of you may not have heard of them, so I'll try and give the general gist of the story.
In the Australian Bush, so the story goes, there live two very strange species of intelligent creature. The Gumbles are short creatures with fluffy ears and very flexible bodies: they can be stretched and squashed without harming them. They clean up junk, and they're generally good natured, ready to give a helping hand. Problem is, they're also helpless when they're laughing, and they're slower than their adversaries and would-be slavers, the Bottersnikes.
The Bottersnikes are fat, almost reptilian creatures with long ears that get red hot when angry (which is a hell of a lot of the time) and almost terminally lazy. They shrink when wet, and eat garbage. Problem is, they also would love nothing more than to have slave labour, and they often try to enslave the Gumbles, by forcing them into jam tins when they capture them.
The first book, Bottersnikes and Gumbles, tells the story of how the two species encountered each other. The second, Gumbles on Guard, involves the travails of the Gumbles trying to save a lyrebird chick from both a ravenous fox and the Bottersnikes. Gumbles in Summer involves the King of the Bottersnikes being assassinated, as well as the Gumbles trying to prevent the Bottersnikes from effectively starting bushfires. And Gumbles in Trouble involves the Gumbles and Bottersnikes being trapped together in an old shed.
Anyone else has read these?
I can't stand children either.
other people's are great they take them back, but I don't like greedy or screaming ones, and I don't think I would like to go through that all again. 
