We Didn't Do Anything Wrong, Hardly

When a couple of inventive boys decide to build a spaceship, they begin with whatever they can find: an old compression chamber, a discarded television, diving gear, household appliances, and a few “borrowed” parts. Their friend Skinny supplies the mathematics, the inventions, and the confidence, designing antigravity, a fusion power plant, radar, and a rocket engine from remarkably ordinary materials.

The narrator insists that nothing was really stolen and that everything will be put back—more or less. But their homemade craft is far more capable than anyone expects, and the boys’ practical jokes, arguments, and casual experiments are about to carry them well beyond the safety of the neighborhood.

Told in the wonderfully defensive voice of a boy trying to explain how none of this is his fault, this lighthearted science-fiction adventure blends youthful ingenuity with genuine scientific imagination. It is an entertaining journey into what can happen when curiosity, friendship, and a disregard for adult supervision are given access to a spaceship.