Danny Dunn

Whether we were exploring the ocean floor, building homework machines, sneaking along on time travel adventures, Danny Dunn and I had fun. OK, I'm not really Irene, but I always imagined I was. Although the books may not be scientifically up-to-date, they inspired me and I anticipate they will inspire my future children.

Jay Williams received the Young Readers Choice Award in 1961 for Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine and in 1963 for Danny Dunn on the Ocean Floor.

"Danny Dunn Predicts Educational Future" is an article exploring educational issues in Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine included in Under the Attic Window, an archived on-line newsletter on children's series books.

Included on this page:

• list of books
• scientific accuracy
• cast of characters
• about the author

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List of books

• Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint
• Danny Dunn on a Desert Island
• Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
• Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine
• Danny Dunn on the Ocean Floor
• Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave
• Danny Dunn and the Heat Ray
• Danny Dunn, Time Traveler
• Danny Dunn and the Automatic House
• Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space
• Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster
• Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy
• Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine
• Danny Dunn, Scientific Detective
• Danny Dunn and the Universal Glue

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Scientific accuracy

As I am not a scientist, or even in a science-related field, I can not verify accuracy or out-of-date scientific thinking that is in the Danny Dunn series. (If any of you has comments, please e-mail me at sharon@bookloversden.com) I do know, however, that these books were scientifically up-to-date at the time they were written in the late '50s and '60s.

Although the series is science-fiction, its stories are firmly based on scientific fact. For instance, the Lamont Geological Laboratories furnished information for The Ocean Floor and I.B.M. contributed greatly to The Homework Machine. For The Heat Ray, I was shown one of the first lasers in use. An attamp has always been made to keep the science in the stories ahead of actual scientific developments. many of the inventions suggested in The Automatic House, then purely hypothetical--such as the video-telephone, the rotating house, and the door responding to voice control--actually appeared in public use within a year after the book was published. --Jay Williams

I have listed the acknowledged scientific help the authors received in writing their books (the ones I know anyway).

Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine

• Terry di Senso at IBM
• Dr. Louis Robinson, Manageer of the Mathematics and Applications Department, IBM

Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine

• Nathan Barrey, meteorologist at Bridgeport Airport (Conn.)
• Patrick Walsh, meteorologist in the New York City Weather Bureau
• Julius Schwartz, consultant in science, Bureau of Curriculum Research, New York City Schools.
• Stanley Koencko, president of the Danbury (Conn.) School of Aeronautics
• Louis Huyber

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Cast of characters

(still developing as I find the other books)

DANNY DUNN

main character, loved science, always getting into scrapes

MRS. DUNN

Danny's mother, housekeeper for Prof. Bullfinch

PROFESSOR BULLFINCH

professor at Midston University, physicist and inventor, fits stereotype of becoming so lost in his work he can appear absent-minded, described as bald, pink-faced and tubby with a jolly manner

JOE PEARSON

Danny's closest friend, poet, thinner and taller than Danny

IRENE MILLER

another close friend of Danny's, wants to be a physicist when she grows up, introduced in Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine

MISS ARNOLD

Danny's teacher in Anti-Gravity Paint

EDDIE "SNITCHER" PHILIPS

Danny's classmate and nemesis

DR. GRIMES

friend of Prof. Bullfinch, plays a mean piccolo

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About the author

The series was conceived by Raymond Abrashkin and written by Jay Williams. Abrashkin was almost completely paralyzed and would point to letters on a drawing of a keyboard to communicate his ideas, quickly developing a shorthand with his co-author, Williams. Abrashkin died after the fifth Danny Dunn book.

Jay Williams

• born May 31, 1914 in Buffalo, New York
• died July 12, 1978 of a heart attack in London
• married Barbara Girdansky June 3, 1941
• had one son, Christopher, and one daughter, Victoria
• attended University of Pennsylvania 1932-33 and Columbia University 1934
• lived in West Redding, Conn.

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Page created October 1995 and maintained by Sharon Reid

sharon@bookloversden.com