Gullible's Troubles

Little Gullible (a guinea pig) is visiting his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and seems to be more of a bother than anything.

When Gullible tries to help Aunt Sarah in the kitchen, he makes quite a mess. In order to get him out of the kitchen, Aunt Sarah tells him that if he eats 50 carrots as fast as he can then he'll become invisible. Cute, right? Not so much. She gives Gullible a basket of moldy carrots and sends him on his way. I'm still not sure why, but Gullible eats the carrots only to get sick and turn "a little orange."

Since the invisibility thing doesn't work out, Gullible decides to see if he can help Uncle Bernard tidy some papers. As you can imagine, he makes a mess there too. So Uncle Bernard sends him to wash a bucket of dirty coal. Interesting. Gullible does it and is surprised to find that the coal simply washes away.

After asking Cousin Lila where he get more coal, she gives him a pair of her old high heels to play with, claiming that they are actually "soccer shoes". Then she sends him to the basement for the coal, but tells him that he must walk all the way downstairs on his hands or a monster will eat him.

Eventually, all three relatives make their way into the basement - without walking on their hands - and poor Gullible thinks that they'll never come back. He wants to run home, but is afraid of the monster in the garden (another one of Cousin Lila's tales), so he runs to the kitchen, eats 50 non-moldy carrots, puts on his "soccer shoes" and now, finding himself invisible, runs home to his mother.

I thought I'd love this book since I liked The Red Wolf so much, but I found it strange. I'm sure it's meant as a comedy, but I just couldn't get past how mean Gullible's relatives were to him. Doesn't his mother have any idea of what's going on over there? Besides, I think Gullible's biggest problem is that he lacks common sense. I read mixed reviews on Amazon, so who knows? Maybe you'll find it amusing.