EIGHT TALES OF MR. PENGACHOOSA

Though it might have seemed that Hammy the hamster's departure at the end of Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa (KR, 1973) signaled the end of the wispy tales about his grandfather with which he amused the lonely little girl who kept him as a pet, he returned later last year in Further Tales and is now ensconced in a little Swiss chalet in the garden (moving willingly, just became he now can choose, to his indoor cage for the winter). Again his tales are built around such fancies as butterfly music, a mirror that reflects what you feel inside, Mr. P. untangling a spider's web, a garden and its inhabitants fixed like its sundial at half past three, or a juggler issuing embroidered beanbags containing moonflower and sunflower seeds which, when planted, change the weather for good or ill. But again, when Rush comes up with a promising notion as in these last two named above, she neither develops their implications nor relates them to her totally undeveloped hero.