TRAVIS AND THE BETTER MOUSETRAP

When young Travis Jay MacArthur builds a super mechanical trap to eliminate his Aunt Millie's mouse problem, he is amazed to discover that it captures a ""Better Mouse""--a talking, bespectacled mouse almost as tall as he is. In quick succession the trap also captures the Groundhog, Easter Bunny, Thanksgiving Turkey, and eventually even a reindeer. Travis demands that they leave immediately; when they won't, he tricks them (with an unwitting Aunt Millie's help) into disappearing. The evolutions of this tale are arbitrary and mechanically carried out; neither Dennard nor Burns, with her pale illustrations, settles into either pure fancy or droll matter-of-factness, but hovers somewhere in between.