The Mushroom Planet - Mr. Bass Books
by Eleanor Cameron

• Viaje Maravilloso Al Planeta de los Hongos (1965), Spanish language edition
• Scholastic (1966), paperback
• Joy Street / Little, Brown (1988), paperback; cover by Peter Sís
• Little, Brown (1998); cover by Kevin Hawkes
• Little, Brown (2003); cover by Steve Vance

When two boys find an ad in a newspaper asking for two young boys to build a spaceship, they quickly construct one out of old tin and scrap wood, and bring it to the advertiser. This man is the mysterious Mr. Tyco Bass, an inventor and scientist. Using his marvelous stroboscopic polarizing filter he shows the boys a previously undetected satellite of the Earth, which he calls Basidium-X. He refits their spaceship, giving them some special fuel he invented to power it, and tells them to fly to the mushroom planet (after getting their parents' permission). He warns them that their trip will only be successful if they bring a mascot.

When it is time for launch, they grab David's hen, Mrs. Pennyfeather, at the last moment for a mascot, and rocket into space. They find the planet of Basidium to be a small, verdant world covered in soft moss and tree-size mushrooms. They quickly meet some residents of the mushroom planet, small men with large heads and slightly green skin, of the same people as the mysterious Mr. Bass. They tell the boys that their planet has had a crisis and that everyone is slowly dying of a mysterious sickness. The boys meet up with the king of the planet, the Great Ta, and end up solving the natives' problem, before returning to Earth.

The story opens with Theo Bass, the cousin of Tyco Bass, coming to Pacific Grove, California, and visiting the two boys (Chuck and David) from the first book. He has been a traveler around the world for many years, and when he finds out about the mushroom planet, he decides to rebuild the boys' lost spaceship and return to what he knows is his ancestral home.

Earlier, the boys had written a letter to a nearby university professor inviting him to come and give a lecture to their young astronomers' society. The letter arrives while the professor is away and is received by his ambitious young assistant, who comes to Pacific Grove to give the lecture in the professor's stead.

The young assistant, Horatio Peabody, ends up going to the Mushroom Planet as a stowaway, and causing quite a bit of trouble there. This book is much more topical than the last one was, as Peabody insists that the Mushroom Planet must be explored and exploited "for the good of science" - as well as for his own personal glory. Mr. Peabody ends up committing an act of sacrilege on the Mushroom Planet that almost gets everyone involved killed, and in general annoys and scares all. However, by the end of the book, Horatio Peabody learns his lesson about the arrogance of his scientific beliefs, and the situation, overall, returns to equilibrium until the next book.

Prewytt Brumblydge, inventor of the Brumblitron, must be found in order to disable the device before it destroys the Earth. This is a job for Mr. Bass, but he has disappeared, so the boys pore over his notebook for clues and go spacefaring to find Brumblydge. This time, instead of journeying to Basidium, they fly to an airless rock named Lepton that orbits 1,000 miles above the Earth's surface.

After a record-breaking storm, David and Chuck discover half-million-year-old fossils on the cliffs where no such bones should be, prompting Tyco Bass to reveal some of the history and customs of the Mycetians, the Mushroom People of Earth. After Tyco's departure, the boys' discovery of the ailing Prewytt Brumblydge's unexpected Mycetian connections leads them to attempt a new, unscheduled trip to Basidium.

This volume is composed of two short stories. In the first, "Jewels from the Moon", Chuck Masterson and David Topman meet a mysterious but kindly old lady (a Mycetian like Mr. Bass) who takes them on a spectacular dream journey. In the second story, "The Meteor That Couldn't Stay", David accompanies Prewytt Brumblydge (a prominent character in Mr. Bass's Planetoid and A Mystery for Mr. Bass on an expedition to recover portions of a brumblium meteorite.

This was designed as a school reading book and was distributed in that manner by the American Book Company. The book is 64 pages long and features comprehension, discussion, and vocabulary questions after each story.

Tyco Bass has been a close friend to Chuck Masterson and David Topman ever since they built their space ship for a journey to the Mushroom Planet. Now Mr. Bass needs their help in a battle against time and the forces of evil that threaten the Mycetians, Mr. Bass and, finally, David. Upon their arrival in the mountains of Wales for a meeting of the secret Mycetian League, Mr. Bass and the boys discover that the ancient Necklace of Ta has been stolen. Also missing is the Thirteenth Scroll, believed to relate the history of the Mycetians. These must be found, for without the necklace, whose strange stones are carved in an unknown language, Mr. Bass cannot continue his effort to translate the Scroll. And without the secret of the Scroll, the evil power that has hounded the Mycetians for centuries cannot be defeated. Chuck and David must use their wits as never before in a search which takes them from a joyous celebration to a terrifying test of endurance involving Time itself.