The illustrations carry this story of an older man who sleeps, then awakes with a tickle in his throat. As he walks around town doing his chores, he cannot speak clearly. He can only mumble, so much so that his speaking is not understood. Mr. Mumby is misunderstood and is called Mr. Mumbles. As his landlady carried a large basket of wash . He asked her if he could carry her cat, but it was understood as a question could he marry the cat! The result was an angry landlady who replied "Certainly Not!"

His dinner was quite interesting. Instead of two scrambled eggs and a corn muffin, it sounded as wanted two scarecrow legs and a car muffler. And, that is what he was served. Another error regarding food happened when he asked for a dozen bagels, and was instead given a dozing beagle dog.

Throughout the day his mumbling caused quite a few errors as he was misunderstood. He ended with a panda bear. an aardvark, a muskrat, a goat and kangaroo.

Finally, when he went to a doctor, and was patted on the back, a blue bird with many pretty feathers flew out of his mouth.

Now, Mr. Mumble had a zoo of animals and needed to find food to feed them.

I'm not sure what flwew out of his mouth at the end, but this was a nicely written book and I enjoyed. The pictures were great. It reminded me of Elise Broach's Everything comes with a Dinosaur. ( )