A touching story about a little boy who lives on his own with his working mother
. Whenever he is naughty, his mother threatens him with Mrs Cole, who appears to
be a disreputable character living nearby in total squalor. He imagines childre
n being starved, whipped and even stewed.
Then one day he runs away from home
and despite his fears, finds himself outside Mrs Cole's house. She invites him
in and he discovers that Mrs Cole's noisy, chaotic kindly house is welcoming and
warm and her house becomes somewhere to go when he is good. ' An intriguing mix
of realism and fantasy is the key element in one of the most outstanding young
children's picture books for some time...with exceptional illustrations by Micha
el Foreman' - Financial Times
