"Gum-Gum" by Evgeny Veltistov, summary

This book is a fairy-tale fantasy novel by Yevgeny Veltistov. Created in 1970, the story vividly depicts the conflict between a carefree existence, where machines fulfill all childhood desires, and the joy of independently exploring the real world. In 1985, a musical television film based on the novel was made. The film adaptation attracted the attention of many Soviet schoolchildren.

Acquaintance with miracles

Early one morning, a boy named Maxim notices a strange man in a red spacesuit in the yard. The stranger is climbing a short ladder suspended in midair. The boy turns out to be an alien with a blue face. His name is Gum-Gum. The alien can perform miracles with a single word: "R-Raz!" He travels through space using a sparkling blue stone.

Gum-Gum complains that all the questions give him a headache. Maxim promises not to ask how space wonders work. In exchange for a kite, the alien gives Maxim a magic ladder. It doesn’t fall and allows him to rise high into the air. Then, for fun, Gum-Gum transforms Maxim’s cat, Rich, into a huge lion and back again.

A new friend begins to participate in children’s games. At the park, Gum-Gum makes a broken carousel spin at incredible speeds and then flies away on it. Later, brothers Mishka and Sergey break thirty-six locks on the doors of their house. The alien teaches the children the game of backgammon. Now doors open by themselves with a snap of their fingers, and keyholes sing cheerful songs.

Flight over the river and the lunar festival

A boy named Petya Zaychikov wants to play with boats. Gum-Gum gathers the whole gang. They board a real white boat moored at the pier. The ship begins to sing in a human voice, races at incredible speed, and even flies through the air over a railroad bridge.

The children land on a green meadow in Forgotten Bay. During a mushroom rain, an alien visitor transforms an ordinary burdock into a giant umbrella. The children ask for new games. Gum-Gum gives them transparent dragonfly wings and long, bouncy lizard tails. But the children begin asking questions about the workings of these wonders. The wings immediately disappear. Gum-Gum sternly reminds them of the unbreakable prohibition against asking questions.

That night, Gum-Gum throws a moon party. The children sneak out to the park and see a glowing blue moon. Gum-Gum and his older brother, Kri-Kri, float down to the clearing on umbrellas. Kri-Kri, the strong man, breaks off a piece of the moon and then returns it. Other blue-faced friends arrive for the party: Tin-Lin, Din-Do, and other space travelers.

The aliens give the children "lunads" — round, sweet bars in blue wrappers with the inscription "I CAN DO ANYTHING." Eating a piece of lunad grants a person the ability to perform miracles. Maxim is given a blue stone for space travel. Gum-Gum confesses to Maxim that he lives in the Land of No Why. Everything is controlled by the powerful Avtuk. If you ask Avtuk a question, the game ends forever.

Lunad Games and Maxim’s Journey

The next morning, the children are making full use of lunad. Zaychikov makes his oatmeal disappear from his bowl. Mishka and Sergey disrupt their music lesson: the piano stops playing, and the television turns on by itself. Mishka skis on the summer grass. Sergey sunbathes under a palm tree on the river beach, and the water around him turns salty.

Maxim decides to visit Gum-Gum. He tosses a blue rock into the air and falls through outer space. The boy finds himself in a city floating in the blue sky. The ground below is completely invisible. Ball-shaped houses obediently float in the wind. Gum-Gum’s house is occupied by Vertun, a flexible cleaning robot. The room is filled with machines constantly asking to be turned on.

Gum-Gum and Maxim go for a walk. They fly through the air using white propellers, ride a dazzling rainbow, and meet an old man on a cloud. He’s looking for the real earth through a telescope. Gum-Gum confesses that in his country, time stands still, which is why children never grow up. Maxim is indignant and asks why. The flying bow disappears, and the boy falls into the abyss, but Gum-Gum saves his friend by throwing a travel stone.

School turmoil and the removal of magic

Fifth-grader Vova Korobkov accidentally overhears a secret and receives a lunad. At school, the magic tile begins to interfere with Vova: the boy confuses words in poems and facts in geography. Vova asks the lunad to play geography. The student’s desk slides around the classroom and boldly climbs onto the wall map. The teachers are shocked.

Gum-Gum learns the secret has been revealed. To distract the students, he exchanges everyone’s lunad for a new one, bearing the inscription "I KNOW EVERYTHING." Now the students answer every question perfectly, even those they haven’t covered yet. The teachers are initially delighted with the A’s, but then realize the children know the material mechanically.

Korobkov tries to destroy the lunad, but to no avail. Maxim tells Vova the secret to getting rid of the obsessive gift. He asks the lunad directly: "What is it for?" Vova says these words, and the magic tile disappears from his pocket forever.

Maxim uses lunad to punish the neighborhood bullies. Then he swaps the scary cardboard masks at the toy store for the cheerful faces of fairy tale characters. Gum-Gum also tries to play pranks on the adults, but fails miserably. He accidentally starts a massive laughter epidemic in the yard and then flees from the police in an ambulance. The alien escapes by transforming the car into a baby stroller.

The Great Secret of Avtuk

Gum-Gum tells Maxim the ancient history of the Land Without Why. Once upon a time, a brave boy named Pochemuk dismantled his main machine, the Avtuk. He desperately wanted to understand its mechanism. Deprived of his miracles, Pochemuk descended forever to the wild land, and that same day, time stood still in the airborne city.

Maxim decides to challenge Avtuk. Gum-Gum transports his friend to his spacious house. Avtuk turns out to be a huge, shiny machine reaching up to the ceiling. The robot obediently dispenses any toys at the press of a button. Maxim ignores the mountains of gifts and asks Avtuk why time has stopped. The enormous machine heats up, gleams menacingly, and throws Maxim back to Earth.

The kids in the neighborhood are growing tired of the lunad. They’re bored with getting what they want without the slightest effort. They give up magic and return the blue tiles to Maxim. A disgruntled Gum-Gum flies off on a rain cloud to find a new planet where more cheerful people live. The magic fades, and the kids return to their usual games of tag and morning fishing.

The Gum-Gam Solution and the Earth School

September 1st is approaching. The children come to meet their new school and their teacher, Maria Georgievna. Maxim climbs up to the window using his magic ladder and stubbornly discourages the little ones from studying. The children refuse to sit at their desks. The principal and teachers are perplexed.

Meanwhile, Gum-Gum demands that Avtuk turn back time. He wants to grow up with Maxim. The alien machine breaks down completely and goes out forever. Gum-Gum and his faithful friends are left without miracles.

The school is holding a festive autumn festival. The principal is giving the children a captivating performance about the infinity of the universe and human knowledge. Animals, a blue whale, and a vast galaxy of stars float across the screen. Suddenly, Gum-Gum and the other blue-faced boys appear on stage. They descend directly from the ceiling and, with great difficulty, bring back the broken Avtuk.

Gum-Gum apologizes to the principal for ruining the party. He admits that they’ve long forgotten everything and don’t know how to repair complex machines. Maxim suggests that the aliens enroll in an Earth school. The principal readily agrees to accept the unusual students.

In the fall, the blue-faced boys confidently enter third grade. School is extremely difficult for them. Kri-Kri habitually walks on the ceiling, and Gum-Gum, under intense stress, suddenly transforms into a wooden cabinet. The aliens promise to study diligently so that they can one day repair Avtuk and restore lost time to their planet. After long lessons, the boys happily play together in the courtyard, harmoniously combining the ordinary joys of childhood with the remnants of bygone magic.