Play & Book Excerpts
Three Green Rats: An Eco Tale
(Ink Pinn Press)
© 2012 Linda Mason Hunter and Suzanne Summersgill
(For ages 7 to 11 and precocious adults)
Mrs. Ethel Misrington did not have a green thumb. Perhaps it was because she desperately tried to force things into the shapes she wanted rather than simply letting them be. It wasn’t just her tomatoes that didn’t thrive—her roses drooped, her dahlias pooped, her sweet peas listed, and the leaves of parched daisies curled in on themselves in sadness.
Most every afternoon she could be found standing in her garden in a big straw hat and gardening gloves, leaning on her rake, sniffling and sneezing into her sleeve. She couldn’t understand why her flowers were so uncooperative, including that spindly bud living at the very top of her house: a tiny rating who would not grow. No matter how many vitamin-enriched processed products Mrs. M plied her with, her grandniece, Maybelline, remained small pale, and very, very quiet.
Maybelline Burlingame Helena Stu hadn’t laughed once since coming to live with “Auntie Miserable.” In fact, she barely spoke at all and clung to her tail as if it were her only lifeline. When no one was looking, she raised it to her face and stroked the soft tuft at the tip against her cheek for comfort.
Mrs. Misrington was always busy running to and fro, shuffling papers, checking her stocks, writing to her banker, scheming with the mayor on the telephone. If Maybelline happened to drift into the room, her aunt would snap, “Not now, child. Can’t you see I’m busy? and the timid rating would retreat back into her hidey hole.
Next time Mrs. M looked over her glasses, she was relieved to not see the stubbornly ungrowing child—a reminder of the obstinacy of all living things.
Synopsis:
There’s trouble in dirty ol’ Tintown. Nature has vamoosed and mean Mrs. Misrington is getting richer by the minute. She loves the racket of cars zoomin’, taxis tootin’, trucks roarin’ and the smell of smokestacks smokin’ because they all mean that business is boomin’. Now Mrs. M has gotten it into her behived head to cut down the last patch of trees in town to make way for her crowning glory—a big-box store right at the end of Broken Bottle Lane.
But something is brewing and it’s not just the compost. Can three recycling rats stop Mrs. Misrington and lead Tintown back to a saner, cleaner life before the whole place goes up in smoke?
Most every afternoon she could be found standing in her garden in a big straw hat and gardening gloves, leaning on her rake, sniffling and sneezing into her sleeve. She couldn’t understand why her flowers were so uncooperative, including that spindly bud living at the very top of her house: a tiny rating who would not grow. No matter how many vitamin-enriched processed products Mrs. M plied her with, her grandniece, Maybelline, remained small pale, and very, very quiet.
Maybelline Burlingame Helena Stu hadn’t laughed once since coming to live with “Auntie Miserable.” In fact, she barely spoke at all and clung to her tail as if it were her only lifeline. When no one was looking, she raised it to her face and stroked the soft tuft at the tip against her cheek for comfort.
Mrs. Misrington was always busy running to and fro, shuffling papers, checking her stocks, writing to her banker, scheming with the mayor on the telephone. If Maybelline happened to drift into the room, her aunt would snap, “Not now, child. Can’t you see I’m busy? and the timid rating would retreat back into her hidey hole.
Next time Mrs. M looked over her glasses, she was relieved to not see the stubbornly ungrowing child—a reminder of the obstinacy of all living things.
Synopsis:
There’s trouble in dirty ol’ Tintown. Nature has vamoosed and mean Mrs. Misrington is getting richer by the minute. She loves the racket of cars zoomin’, taxis tootin’, trucks roarin’ and the smell of smokestacks smokin’ because they all mean that business is boomin’. Now Mrs. M has gotten it into her behived head to cut down the last patch of trees in town to make way for her crowning glory—a big-box store right at the end of Broken Bottle Lane.
But something is brewing and it’s not just the compost. Can three recycling rats stop Mrs. Misrington and lead Tintown back to a saner, cleaner life before the whole place goes up in smoke?
Linda Mason Hunter splits her time between her homes in Iowa and Vancouver, British Columbia. Formerly an editor with the Des Moines Register, Rodale Press and Meredith Corporation, Linda has written and produced 17 books. Her first book, The Healthy Home: An Attic-To-Basement Guide to Toxin-Free Living (Rodale Press), was favorably reviewed in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, including The New York Times, leading to an appearance on ABC TV’s “Good Morning, America.”
Three Green Rats: An Eco Tale (Ink Pinn Press) was a finalist for Foreword Reviews Book of the Year (2013) and runner-up for best early chapter book, fiction, in Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards (2013). Linda is also the author of Green Clean and Southwest Style: A Home Lover’s Guide to Architecture and Design, both available on Amazon.
Linda hosts “The Green Zone” daily on KFMG 98.9 FM in Des Moines. She is currently working on a memoir.
Three Green Rats: An Eco Tale (Ink Pinn Press) was a finalist for Foreword Reviews Book of the Year (2013) and runner-up for best early chapter book, fiction, in Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards (2013). Linda is also the author of Green Clean and Southwest Style: A Home Lover’s Guide to Architecture and Design, both available on Amazon.
Linda hosts “The Green Zone” daily on KFMG 98.9 FM in Des Moines. She is currently working on a memoir.
