Mr. Putter & Tabby Bring the Hope
Happy Easter—the day for rebirth & renewal!
During a piano lesson last week with my student Jane, I wrote, “Bounce the ball!” in the margin of a Hanon exercise (imagery conducive to greater arm relaxation while playing), and was suddenly derailed from the hour’s official purposes by an association that took me a few seconds to pin down. Thankfully, Jane is game for tangents (she initiates at least as many as I do), so I left the room and returned with a stack of twenty-five chapter books for early readers: the Mr. Putter & Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant with illustrations by Arthur Howard. Jane took a photo of the title I had just hazily recollected—Mr. Putter & Tabby Drop the Ball—and, after my emphatic endorsement, decided she’d introduce the series to her almost-five-year-old forthwith.
Since then I’ve re-read every book in the set. They’re even more delightful than I’d remembered. The four central characters are elderly Mr. Putter; his fine cat, Tabby, equally old in feline years; Mr. Putter’s neighbor Mrs. Teaberry, also elderly; and Mrs. Teaberry’s good dog, Zeke, clearly the youngest of the foursome, given his unlimited capacity for destruction. Every title takes the form Mr. Putter & Tabby [Verb] the [Noun]. To series fans in mid or late life, Mr. Putter no doubt appears as the septuagenarian or octogenarian he is; to twenty-somethings, he may look like he’s in his fifties; and to little kids, he may well be mistaken for a poor sap in his thirties. But regardless of perspective, these are books to enjoy at any age, and even though the plots strain credulity at times (to their credit), two overarching themes sparkle on every page: for children, aged adults can be kids too; and for adults, the most essential aspects of childhood can still be cultivated in late life and with great enjoyment.
(By the way, to this point in the series—and I have no idea if more additions are forthcoming—Mr. Putter and Mrs. Teaberry have not gotten together romantically. I mention this to any fellow readers who, like me, appreciate occasional breaks from that particular narrative motif.)
So again, Happy Easter! It’s a perfect day to celebrate lingering youth, renewal, rebirth, and immortality as a concept—as a hope.