Henry and Mudge Make the Most of a Yucky Weekend

We've reached the part of the winter when all of the snow has been sitting around so long that it scarcely carries a trace of its past sparkling beauty. No, this is just drift after drift of brownish sludge, hardly a sight to inspire any imagination. My dear curmudgeonly Toad would peek out on the disgraceful display and comment, "Blah." Henry, the usually chipper young protagonist of the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant - author of the Poppleton and Mr. Putter and Tabby books - and illustrator Sucie Stevenson, would probably describe the scene in the following manner: "Wet yuck."

This is the title of the first section in Henry and Mudge and the Long Weekend, the eleventh book of their adventures. This 35-page book has more sections that usual, five as opposed to the average of three. The other sections include Bored, The Idea, Down in the Basement and A Great Weekend. Henry awakes on a Saturday dismayed by the icky weather, which proceeds to cast gloom over the entire day. Mudge is so bored he falls asleep, and Henry and his father - who teases that Henry has a case of the "February cranks," "winter grumpies" and "pre-spring meanies" - soon follow suit. But then Mom comes up with the perfect plan to keep everyone bright and cheery.

When I was a much more convenient smaller size, I loved changing a card table, a couple of couches and chairs and several blankets and books into a marvelous fortress. The more chairs the better, and sometimes I'd even manage to set up two card tables side by side for the grandest of all possible living room castles. But the best homemade clubhouse I ever had rested in our basement, just like the one Henry's mom proposes. Mine was not a castle like Henry's with fancy towers and flags and battlements. Rather, mine was decked in dots of all colors in order to replicate the Polka Dot Door, the centerpiece of my favorite television show at the time. It sure was fun to decorate that former refrigerator box and turn it into my own magical place. I don't recall if I spent a whole weekend working on it, but it certainly would have been a pleasant pastime for a couple of days.

How could anyone dwell on the mid-winter blahs while so happily engaged? Henry and his parents really go full steam ahead with this project, designing and cutting and painting to their hearts' delight, with breaks figured in for pizza, of course. And while Mudge may not make himself particularly useful, he's thrilled to happen upon a beloved old boot that he thought had disappeared years ago.

For children stuck with a big stretch of time before them and no obvious way to fill it, Henry and Mudge and the Long Weekend may be just the thing to serve up the needed dose of inspiration - perhaps even enough to counteract the "wet yuck" of Erie County in March.