The TEXT tells us us that the old wooden-legged lady ("how did she get a wooden leg?" the child will want to know) bought plants and tended a windowbox garden; the PICTURES show us that the twenty multi-racial children , ("But Dad....how can she be their MOTHER?") helped her enthusiastically and with concentration; some watering , one serenely sponging the leaves of a giant monstera.
While Mr Murgatroyd broods over the reluctance of his tenants to fight each other, we are able , through the skill and humour of the artist, to examine the contents of his pantry. The bear who rents a quiet room so that he can play the flute does not tell us that he likes honey, but the illustrations show the honeypot over which his carpetbag will not close!
The colours are bright, but never garish- clear reds; strokeable blacks and browns for the musical bears; warm pinks; beautiful seagreen for the mermaid and clear yellow for her hair...and all the colours of the rainbow for the twenty children...
And, obviously, this book invites questions. The children will want to count the twenty assorted children, to ask, "Why? Why?" of the strange family, then "Where did they all come from?" and "Why are they so poor" and "How can they all live in one room?" and "How come THEIR mother is letting them paint on the walls?"....and "How did that man marry the mermaid if she can't walk?"...and "Where did that other bear come from..that one who plays the violin?"...and, "Where will they all GO?"
In fact, I can imagine kids playing out their own versions of this story for many years more to come..!
"Rooms To Let" and "Rooms For Rent"...by Margaret Mahy and Jenny Williams.....get hold of a copy by any which way!!
This story, titled differently in America and Australia, was released in Australia by Dent, in 1974, and followed two award winning titles from this writer/illustrator team, "A Lion In the Meadow" and "The Boy with Two Shadows"..(And for the life of me, I can't see why THEY are still in print ...great books though they are, Mahy's lion and long-suffering little boy being two of my favourite children's lit. characters)..yet this superb book is NOT!!
And make no mistake! Children's books don't come any better than this!!
The original Dent edition was beautifully produced , with every spare inch illustrated, including the front and rear covers, and every illustration complementing and supplementing the narrative!
This story, about a grasping man who decidedes to turn landlord, and the unusual tenants who change his life, is whimsical, but never TOO far-fetched, with just enough magic to be magical..the moral is clear, but not heavy-handed, and the very human emotions of greed, loneliness, tolerance and love are sympathetically portrayed.
The illustrations are superb- never detracting from the story but full of the tiny details so important to a child;the kind of illumination that requires a book to be brought out for examination again, and again! 
The TEXT tells us (without undue explanation) that the mermaid, (whose sailor husband wheels her about in a rusty wheelbarrow) , likes to splash and sing in the bath; The PICTURES show us that under the bath a multigeneration mouse fmaily , whose activites are shown somewhere on every page, has set up its own bathroom complex, with two boymice sailing paper boats on the water surface. In this underfloor house a whole existence is played out in nooks and crannies; in a vast mousehall ballroom two girl mice are practising ballet steps!
"..outside stood Mrs Piper, looking like a rainbow all patched and stitched, while behind her, hanging onto her left hand and her right hand and stretching far down the street were twenty children, all stitched and patched too....."
There are so many questions left for the children to ponder.
The story, while ending quite satisfyingly, suspends a conclusion, as though the author intended the her child readers to add their own "Ever after.." paragraphs.
Certainly there are infinite logical rounding-off possibilities, and so many openings for family or class discussion and recapitulation.
And a a time like this, when half the world peaple appear unable to get on with the other half, the story packs a gigantic moral, and has a lot to say about peaceful, productive coexistence!
For these reasons alone the book is a "Must" for reading aloud, but apart from her satisfying story, the author's words sing themselves, her style almost musical.
The old lady went "Flup-Clunk, Flup-Clunk" as she walked around on one slipper and one wooden leg, and Mr Murgatroyd mutters in the kind of low voice children love to hear dramatized.
This books seems to be out of print but Amazon will be happy to chase up a copy for you...
They have it listed under the author, the illustrator, and as "Rooms For Rent".
 |
Reactions, Comments and suggestions to: robink@mail.austasia.net