All Things Bright and Beautiful

Wyllie's rescript of a cumulative folk tale is the basis for a jolly game to play while finding out how the old woman copes with her vexations. In pleasing colors, Roffey shows the grandmotherly person peacefully at home in her country cottage, accepting a little gray mouse as a guest. But then the mouse begins to scratch and squeak all night and the woman can't sleep. She brings home a cat to control the mouse but the cat, having dislodged the pest, becomes another problem, meowing all night. A dog seems the answer to handling the cat but he barks, so the poor, tired woman adopts a cow that eats the thatched roof of her little house. On pages opposite the scenes of nonstop doings, the operative words appear on flaps to lift and reveal miniatures (also in bright color) of the reluctant hostess, the animals and the attractive appointments of the little house. (48)