Children's Book Review: Just a Mess by Mercer Mayer

My son LOVED what we refer to as "the little critter books".  There are a series of these books by Mercer Mayer and the illustrations are awesome.  I'll take a wild guess and say that they might best fit ages 3-7.  They are short, sweet and perfect for bedtime stories.  In particular, we loved the ones where a little critter was in some sort of mischief...hmmm, I wonder why that is?

Published in 1987, I think this series stands the test of time.  At Amazon, they are $4.  The price tag is still on this one.  I got it at Target for $1.49...easily over 20 years ago.

I only saved the faves from this collection and will review the ones that stood out enough to be salvaged from the ravages of childhood.  The first on the list is "Just A Mess" and is about, what else?  A messy room and having to clean it up.  What kid can't relate to that?

Little Critter has a rather unconventional way of approaching cleaning his room, so don't let the tasks he SAYS he does below fool you into thinking it's boring.  There are a few little insects like a spider and a grasshopper and a flying insect that show up on most pages too, so in addition to reading, you can ask you child to find them in each page.  They are easy to spot.

The illustrations are not to be missed.  Here is the simple text to this book:

Today I couldn't find my baseball mitt.

I looked in my tree house.

I looked under the back steps.

I asked Mom if she had seen it.  She said I should try my room.

I never thought to look in there.  What a mess!

Mom said it was time to clean my room.  So I asked her to help.

She said, "You made the mess, so you can clean up the mess."

Dad was working in the yard.  He said he was too busy to help me.

My little sister said, "No way!"

And the baby didn't understand.

I just did it myself.

First, I put a few things in the closet.

I put my clothes in the drawers.

I straightened up my games. (he's shown using a snow shovel for this task)

I shut the lid to my toy box.

and put away my books.

The rest of the mess fit under my bed, so I put it there.

Then I made the bed.  Won't Mom be pleased.

I thought I might wash the floor.

But Mom said, "NO!"

So I just vacuumed instead.

Everything was just about perfect.

Then I noticed that my pillow was missing.

I looked on the other side of my bed.

And guess what I found?

My baseball mitt.