Kids' book about weird creatures

August 18, 2005 9:10 AM

Does anyone remember a kids' book about two warring breeds of creatures?

They had weird names, like worryworts and gimbles or something like that. The book was eponymous. One of the breeds was incredibly cute, peaceful and kind. The other was evil, ugly and malicious. It schemed continually to capture the cuties, but I can't for the life of me think why (not for food; it wasn't that kind of book). I think water made the ugly creatures shrink. Please help because it's driving me mad!

posted by londonmark to writing & language (6 comments total)

Can't help you, but if you strike out here, you can always try http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom

Good luck
posted by IndigoJones at 9:19 AM on August 18, 2005

Bottersnikes and Gumbles?
posted by scruss at 9:32 AM on August 18, 2005

Yikes! Even if that's wrong, thank you, scruss.

I think.
posted by IndigoJones at 9:42 AM on August 18, 2005

"For those of you who don't know, or have forgotten, Bottersnikes are perpetually grumpy, fat green scaly beasties that live in the Australian bush. They have long pointy ears that turn red hot when they are angry, which is most of the time. Bottersnikes spend their days being lazy, bad-tempered, and avoiding water which makes them shrink. Their favourite food is fried mattress stuffing. They have memorable names such as Chank, Glob and Snorg."

From the Home Page of the fan site. Looks like scruss is correct!
posted by jazon at 10:23 AM on August 18, 2005

Ohmygod, that's them! Thank you SO much, this has been tormenting me for years!
posted by londonmark at 1:13 AM on August 19, 2005

Ah, no problem. The subject came up on the J. P. Martin's Uncle books mailing list I run.
posted by scruss at 6:44 AM on August 19, 2005