Originally published in Asbjørnsen and Moe's nineteenth century collection of Norwegian folktales, this humorous story - Mannen som skulle stelle hjemme in the original - follows the trials and tribulations of a bad-tempered husband, whose criticism of his wife's housekeeping results in a day of swapped duties. Convinced that he can get more work done in the house, the husband stays home for the day, letting his wife take over his job in the fields. But a series of hilarious mistakes - each one compounding the previous - leads him into a very sticky mess. Luckily, his wife comes home in time to set things to rights...

I have always enjoyed this gender-bender folktale from Norway, appreciating its affirmation of the worth - and difficulty - of women's work, and its cautionary lesson about criticizing others. I imagine that some might read it as a reinforcement of traditional gender roles, with the woman belonging in the home, and the man out in the world, but I myself am always struck by the fact that although the husband has such difficulties performing his wife's tasks, she encounters none in doing his. That fact gives this tale a particularly subversive quality, in my eyes, turning it into a fascinating social commentary, not only on the devaluing of "women's" work, but on the very real difficulties that can emerge, if men are ignorant of how that work is done.

Young readers, of course, will probably not be interested in the social ramifications of The Man Who Kept House, and in a culture in which many domestic duties are now shared (to a greater or lesser extent), one wonders how this tale would be perceived. Still, the humor of this story shines through, and the illustrations by Svend Otto S. are quite appealing. Norwegian folklore enthusiasts will surely want to take a look at this one! ( )

I really didn't enjoy thins short story. It was very choppy and didn't flow well. It was also unrealistic but not on purpose. I felt like the author just didn't think things through. The moral was uncovered when a man who believed that his work was harder than his wife's tried to keep house for a day. He learned that keeping house is very difficult and there's so much to do. Therefore he learned to appreciate his wife's work and stop complaining about his own work. I did like the message because it gives a perspective of stay-at-home mothers. It would be good for children that have two working parents to hear that some families have one working parent, but that they also do a lot of work. The only other thing I really didn't like was that there were a lot of unfamiliar words for such young children, such as "churn" and "porridge". Children who had never heard these words before would not be able to recognize them in the reading. ( )