We here at the Family Valued executive washroom, microwave kitchen, and unified pressroom have randomly selected a ten-year-old from among the one immediately available.

So, what have you been reading lately?
Thud!.

What is that?
It’s the latest book written by Terry Pratchett. It’s funny fantasy. He is a very good writer from Britain. The other ones I remember are Truckers, about these teeny little people who live inside this store. Wee Free Men is about a witch who realizes that there are little blue people that live in this hill and are a bit smaller.

He seems to have a thing about little people.
Yes, I’m not sure why.

Thud! seems like a very big book.
Yes, it’s the biggest book I’ve ever read by myself. I wanted to know what happened and things did happen and it was fun. The Discworld series has a very good creation myth- like some Godly figure made this turtle and its four elephant bothers and they jumped up on its back and its ectoplasm jumped up and formed the world. It was something like that. Every book he tells about different people. Thud! is about the Watch in Ankh-Morpork, a city in Discworld. They’re kind of police. Trolls don’t usually wear clothes. I guess clothes are not a troll-y thing. Death always appears in all of his books at least once. He has to in every book. He just does.

So you’re reading about death.
It isn’t exactly. He’s a character. Death said that Vimes (Commander of the Watch) was having a near-death experience and Death was having a near-Vimes experience.

Would you recommend the book?
Yes, I would. It has humor and adventure.

February, 2006