Truckers

A small band of nomes (think: gnomes) leaves the Outside and travels in the back of a truck to the Store where they discover a huge city of nomes. For generations, the Store nomes have lived inside, divided up into contentious departmental groups. The nomes learn that the Store is to be destroyed in twenty-one days. To escape, the nomes must do the impossible: the nomes must learn how to work together to drive a huge eighteen-wheeler to a safe location.

A silly delight of a book, filled with the usual Terry Pratchett nonsense.

Some random quotes:

“The important thing about being a leader is not being right or wrong but being certain. Of course, it helps to be right as well, the Abbot conceded.”

“I don't know enough words, he thought. Some things you can't think unless you know the right words.”

“It was always a good idea, he said, to be good at something other people couldn't or didn't want to do.”

“Nomes had always lived in corners of the world, and suddenly there weren't too many corners anymore. The numbers started going down. A lot of this was due to natural causes, and when you're four inches high, natural causes can be anything with teeth and speed and hunger.”

‘“What's up with him?” asked Masklin.
“He's having to think,” she said. “That always worries people.”‘

“According to Gurder, the big pink humans that stood in Fashions, and Kiddies Klothes, and Young Living, and never moved at all, were those who had incurred Arnold Bros (est. 1905)'s displeasure. They had been turned into horrible pink stuff, and some said they could even be taken apart. But certain Klothian philosophers said no, they were particularly good humans, who had been allowed to stay in the store forever, and not made to disappear at Closing Time. Religion was very hard to understand.”