Mr. Messy (Mr. Men and Little Miss) [Mass Market Paperback]

Roger Hargreaves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 1998 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Mr. Men and Little Miss

Mr. Messy is in a pickle when Mr. Neat and Mr. Tidy come to call.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The late Roger Hargreaves created the Mr. Men series for his son, Adam, who currently oversees the estate and creates illustrations for new Mr. Men books.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Price Stern Sloan (August 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843174218
• ISBN-13: 978-0843174212
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 5.5 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The late Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of childrens' books, including the popular Mr. Men and Little Miss series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsettling Echoes Of Josef K., March 2, 2010

By 

Hamilton Richardson (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Messy (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Mass Market Paperback)

If '1984' or 'The Trial' had been a children's book, Mr Messy would be it. No literary character has ever been so fully and categorically obliterated by the forces of social control. Hargreaves may well pay homage to Kafka and Orwell in this work, but he also goes beyond them.

We meet Mr Messy - a man whose entire day-to-day existence is the undiluted expression of his individuality. His very untidiness is a metaphor for his blissful and unselfconscious disregard for the Social Order. Yes, there are times when he himself is a victim of this individuality - as when he trips over a brush he has left on his garden path - but he goes through life with a smile on his face.

That is, until a chance meeting with Mr Neat and Mr Tidy - the archetypal men in suits. They set about a merciless programme of social engineering and indoctrination that we are left in no doubt is in flagrant violation of his free will. 'But I like being messy' he protests as they anonymize both his home and his person with their relentless cleaning activity, a symbolism thinly veiled.

This process is so thorough that by the end of it he is unrecognizable - a homogenized pink blob, no longer truly himself (that vibrant Pollock-like scribble of before). He smiles the smile of a brainwashed automaton, blandly accepting what he has been given no agency to question or refuse. It is in this very smile that the sheer horror of what we have seen to occur is at its most acute.

Somewhere behind this blank expression though is a latent anger - a trace of self-knowledge as to what he once was - in the barbed observation he makes to Neat and Tidy that they have even deprived him of his name.

The book ends with a dry reminder from Hargreaves that just as with the secret police in some totalitarian regime, our own small expressions of uniqueness and volition may also result in a visit from these sinister suited agents.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Mr. Men/Little Miss book, March 26, 2002

By 

old_hyperbolic_squiggly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Messy (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my favorite Mr. Men/Little Miss book as a wee whipper snapper. Now I am sharing these stories with other people's children. Kids find them just as amusing today as I did then, and (eep!) now I can even see how us adults do, too! The books in the series range from great to average to pointless; and while I have not read them ALL (there are SO many), Mr. Messy is at the top of my list. He's messy, he's cute, he's charming, and he's paid an unexpected visit from Mr. Tidy and Mr. Neat. And from the lesson standpoint, this book persuasively illustrates how much "nicer" things are when they're clean rather than blatantly telling children to clean up after themselves. The end was the best part, but I won't spoil it by telling! Modest in length, colorful pictures on each page, and easy enough for kids of all ages to understand, these quirky books are great for early readers one step up from Dr. Seuss.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read to Your Child to Improve Bonding and Intellect!, August 6, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mr. Messy (Hardcover)

Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Mr. Messy was one of her picks.

Mr. Messy really is aptly named. He lived in a messy looking house with peeling paint, broken windows, a garden gate falling off its hinges, uncut grass, random items all over the house along with an unmade bed, and a broom that he tripped on in the garden. In fact, he was so messy, he bothered my daughter. As a result, she did something that she usually did not do . . . she got her crayons out and began making things look better.

Then Mr. Messy went for a walk and found the neatest cottage he had ever seen. Outside were Mr. Clean and Mr. Neat who were tidying things up. They asked Mr. Messy if they could help him. Mr. Messy agreed, and they quickly cleaned up the outside. Then they cleaned up the inside. Then, they realized that Mr. Messy needed work, too, and they cleaned him up also. After that, Mr. Messy said that 'I'm going to have to change my name!' All three became best of friends.

For years, whenever our daughter's room would start to get messy, we would ask her if she wanted a visit from Mr. Neat and Mr. Clean. She would laugh and start picking things up.

This is a good book for helping your child learn good tidiness habits, because the consequences of the alternative become obvious in a particularly humorous way.