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CM . . .
. Volume VIII Number 20 . . . . June 6, 2002
excerpt:
Badger lived in a cozy little house. Sometimes the door stuck. Sometimes the shutters rattled and the roof leaked. Sometimes the chimney clogged and filled the house with smoke. But Badger never seemed to mind. "Nothing's perfect," he would say. One night there was a terrible storm. The door groaned and buckled in the wind. The shutters shook and slammed against the wall. And the chimney clogged, filling the house with thick black smoke. Finally, the shingles blew off, letting the rain pour in. The next morning when the storm had passed, Badger looked around his little home. "This place is a mess," he said."It needs fixing up. But I can't do it. I'm moving!" Badger found himself an enormous new house. It had leaded windows and double doors. It had carvings and towers and polished floors. It even had a grand stone staircase at the front. "Now this is a house!" Badger beamed and hurried home to pack.
Robin Muller's
latest picture book is a charming story that children and adults will
enjoy. It begins with Badger happy in his cozy imperfect little home.
After a storm emphasizes all the work he has to do on his home, he decides
instead to move. Finding a grand residence equaling Toad Hall in splendor,
Badger puts his house on the market with a sign that reads, "Handyman
Special -- New owner needed for old house."
Grandmother Mouse answers the ad and
dismisses Badger's warnings about the repairs needed for the house,
saying, "Someone will fix them for me." So Badger moves into his new
house, and Grandmother Mouse moves into his old one.
Badger soon finds that he is not happy
in his new house. His furniture looks small and sad in the immense rooms.
He gets lost in the endless maze of hallways, and, sometimes too tired
to climb the great staircase to his room, Badger just curls up and sleeps
in the middle.
One day, Badger receives an invitation
for tea from Grandmother Mouse. When he arrives, he is struck by how
warm and welcoming his house looks. A tear comes to his eye. Grandmother
Mouse tells him the house is perfect, except for the door that sticks.
Not wanting to admit that he's never fixed anything before, Badger agrees
to fix it and is delighted to find he succeeds. They have a wonderful
visit, and Badger is invited to come again tomorrow. The next day, Grandmother
Mouse tells him that the house is perfect, except for the shutters that
rattle. And so Badger repairs the broken shutters, just as he does all
other repairs on subsequent visits.
Cleverly, Grandmother Mouse now has a
house with no repairs needed. However, she now has a new problem. All
her relations have come to stay, and now there is not enough room for
her too. "I can fix that, too!" shouted Badger happily. And so, Badger's
new house becomes Grandmother Mouse's new house while Badger's old house
becomes his new one. "Now that everything is fixed, my little house
is perfect," he told Grandmother Mouse the next time they met."Except
that now it needs a friend to come to tea."
"I can fix that," said Grandmother Mouse.
The wonderful illustrations in watercolour
and pencil crayons beautifully complement and augment the sure-footed
text. Full of rich details and humour, the pictures tell their own story
of Badger's determinedness in fixing the house as well as the developing
friendship between the two. One especially fun illustration show Badger
precariously balanced on a ladder hammering at the roof while wee Grandmother
Mouse holds one end of a rope of a safety harness on the ground.
Satisfaction comes on many levels in
this happy tale of friendship and problem-solving as each friend provides
a solution for the other's dilemma. Badger now appreciates his little
house and has a new-found confidence in his ability to fix things. And
he and Grandmother Mouse are now dear friends.
A lovely story.
Highly recommended. Edmonton,
AB's Liz Greenaway has worked in bookselling and publishing and is currently
at home with her small children.
To comment on this
title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal
use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other
reproduction is prohibited without permission.
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NEXT REVIEW |TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - June 7, 2002
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