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Rooms for Rent
As landlords go, Mr. Murgatroyd was one of the worst. If there was one thing that he could not stand, it was tenants!
Mr. Murgatroyd charged way too much rent for the rooms in his house, but, as it turned out, there were certain tenants who were willing to pay too much rent. This led to a very strange collection of people under Mr. Murgatroyd's roof - there was Mrs. Piper and her twenty children, the black bear who played the flute, the man whose wife was a mermaid, and several others. The place was bedlam.
The landlord was miserable. He only wanted to get rid of the whole lot of tenants and have some peace. But, when his wish was granted and the tenants left, Mr. Murgatroyd learned some things about people and bears and mermaids and tenants - and himself.
Mr. Murgatroyd charged way too much rent for the rooms in his house, but, as it turned out, there were certain tenants who were willing to pay too much rent. This led to a very strange collection of people under Mr. Murgatroyd's roof - there was Mrs. Piper and her twenty children, the black bear who played the flute, the man whose wife was a mermaid, and several others. The place was bedlam.
The landlord was miserable. He only wanted to get rid of the whole lot of tenants and have some peace. But, when his wish was granted and the tenants left, Mr. Murgatroyd learned some things about people and bears and mermaids and tenants - and himself.
39 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Margaret Mahy
332 books291 followersMargaret Mahy was a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.
For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.
On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.
For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.
On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 1, 2025
I read this on Archive. That truly is a great site. So many books and other items are available to everyone. I listened to a recording of David McCallum’s album. He played Ducky on NCIS. The album was from the 60s, during his The Man from Uncle time.
Anyway, on to the actual book. I hadn’t heard of the author prior. She seems to still be well-loved. Being for children, the book obviously has nonsensical aspects. The best part (to me) were the illustrations. There are mice throughout. The characters never mention them. The images are cut-aways, so we see them in-between the floor, in the walls, etc. I can see a child up to about eight enjoying this. After that, they may have the same question I did about the ending
Anyway, on to the actual book. I hadn’t heard of the author prior. She seems to still be well-loved. Being for children, the book obviously has nonsensical aspects. The best part (to me) were the illustrations. There are mice throughout. The characters never mention them. The images are cut-aways, so we see them in-between the floor, in the walls, etc. I can see a child up to about eight enjoying this. After that, they may have the same question I did about the ending
Displaying 1 of 1 review