FURTHER TALES OF MR. PENGACHOOSA

Hammy the talking hamster has been recaptured after a year and a half in the garden and many of his new stories about his three-foot six-inch hamster grandfather, Mr. Pengachoosa, are subtle attempts to talk his way back to freedom. Mr. Pengachoosa finds a magic ring that helps him spirit a bored boy away for stolen hours of play, tells how a high flying lark was changed into the wind, and is held prisoner by a weasel woman who feeds him enchanted cakes. Likewise, a gift of fresh corn reminds Hammy of a village fooled into believing that a scarecrow was solving their problems for them, and a pressed poppy prompts Hammy to confide that the poppies in their garden were actually the sun's children who fell to earth after eating the moon (which tasted like watermelon) until nothing but a crescent was left. Each tale grows from the kernel of an original idea, but in the end they fall fiat because Mr. Pengachoosa doesn't seem to make much of his unusual experiences. Nor do we quite know what to make of passive Mr. Pengachoosa, and only Strandquest's pictures of the bespectacled hamster in gentleman's clothing make him palpable at all.