McGregor lives in a higgledy-piggledy house “with a cheery wife, five children, and a hen called Hattie.” He likes to sing, dance, paint and fix things for people. And every night he fiddles while his family and his hen “whirled and whooshed and wheeched.” His inventions are clever and daffy (a barking bag that scares off the dog that tortures the postman), and he does his work with a happy heart. But the president of the Royal Society of Inventors pays a visit and wants him to work in the laboratory and take his inventing seriously. Off goes McGregor, only to find that the very joys in his life are what inspire him to invent, and he can’t think of a thing to create while in the office. Back home he goes to a happy life full of joy and many new inventions, like jellybean erasers and books that glow in the dark. The sprightly pastel drawings are as lighthearted as the text, which bursts with energy and inventiveness. (Picture book. 5-8)
