Title: Tidy

Author: Emily Gravett
Illustrator: Emily Gravett

Publisher: Two Hoots (2016)

ISBN: 9781447273998

 

“Deep in the forest lived a badger called Pete who tidied and cleaned and kept everything neat.” He snipped off any flowers that didn’t match, he untangled the fox’s fur and brushed the beaks of all the birds. As the leaves fell in Autumn, he collected all the leaves and put them in hundreds of rubbish bags but now the trees were too bare so he dug them all up! Then it rained leaving the forest floor covered in mud, so Badger called in the diggers and covered the ground in concrete. “No mud / No leaves / No mess / No trees. Perfectly tidy and perfectly neat.” When he was hungry, he found there were no beetles to eat, and he couldn’t find the door to his home under the concrete. After a night outside with his belly rumbling, he realised he had made a mistake and set out to rectify it. All the forest animals came out the help and put everything back in place.