I certainly would want these values instilled in the next generation.

On the surface this is a good lesson to teach children: respect the environment and don't pollute. Since this is a children's book it naturally turns out alright as nature finds a way to overcome the Pollutians damage and the wumps return to their idyllic lifestyle. The Pollutians leave when they find such a planet, letting the wumps reclaim their broken planet. However, instead enacting policies and changes to their way of life, the Pollutians instead send out scouts to find a new planet. The Pollutians use up the planet's resources, foul its environment, and generally make a mess of things. Having learned nothing from their previous lifestyle they continue their non-sustainable way of life, driving the poor wumps underground. The villains of this morality play are the aptly named 'Pollutians', refuges from a previous planet they spoiled. It is a very straight forward environmental parable about the perils of resource exploitation and non-sustainable economic growth wrapped up in a Manichean conflict between nature and industry with our poor wumps stuck in between. OK, maybe I am just using this review as an excuse to post Capybara pictures, but the resemblance is striking.Īnyway, since this site is called GoodReads and not GoodLargeRodents, suppose I should talk about the book. For those ignorant of these fair beasts, here is a picture of one: They are likely the reason I find Capybaras awesome. I remember really enjoying it as a child and it still holds its old charm for me as an adult.įor those not in the know, this is a wump (or more specifically, several wumps): He thought the ending kind of sucked - his words. He thought the people of Pollutus were gross and nasty and he didn’t like them. The nephew read this and he didn’t react much too it. It was quite a downer really and I didn’t feel the ending was that uplifting either. The wumps do find one patch of trees and grass left and they know eventually the skies will clear and the buildings will fall and they are happy once the people of Pollutus move on to another world. I believe our environment is important, but the Lorax is a much better tale about this, yet it’s good to have more than one. They come in and ruin this world with buildings and smog and concrete. They had to leave their world and find another. One day the world is invaded by the blue peoples from Pollutus. The only creatures are happy little Wumps. Wump World is a small world with only rivers, trees, lakes and grasses. This is a great story around Earth day or anytime to remember the good Earth.

Much like the 1970s, this is a strange book.

The Wump World by Bill Peet