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WHAT-A-MESS by Frank Muir

WHAT-A-MESS

By

Pub Date: March 17th, 1978
Publisher: Doubleday

The puppy's real name was Prince Amir of Kinjan,"" but judging from what everybody says when they lay eyes on the ""shapeless bundle of muddy fur,"" he thinks it's ""What-a-mess."" ""You're no puppy of mine,"" sighs his beautiful Afghan mother when she views his tangled coat, but What-a-mess comes (literally) crashing to earth when he tries out being, in turn, a bee, a fur hat, and a fish (all, like himself, short and fat). Then his sympathetic mother murmurs that "". . . really, deep down you're a dear""--and so the puppy goes to sleep, happy in the knowledge that he is a deer. As pictured, What-a-mess is properly shapeless and shaggy, but he comes through his slapstick fails like a lead balloon, and Muir's ending is the worst flop of all.