The Homeward Bounders: Part 2

By DIANA WYNNE JONES, Illustrator DAVID WYATT

When it's written about a foot of talk, it cuts that off and shoots it out into a tray in front, so that you can read it over, or take it away if you want. And it does this without ever stopping jabbering. If you stop talking, it goes on hopping up and down for a while, in an expectant sort of way, waiting for you to go on. If you don't go on, it slows down and stops, looking sad and disappointed. It put me off at first, doing that. I had to practise with it. I don't like it to stop. The silence creeps in then. I'm the only one in the Place now. Everyone has gone, even him Ð the one whose name I don't know.

My name is Jamie Hamilton and I was a perfectly ordinary boy once. I am still, in a way. I look about thirteen. But you wouldn't believe how old I am. I was twelve when this happened to me. A year is an awful long time to a Homeward Bounder.

Publisher: HarperCollins, $14.95 Age group: 9-12 years