Mrs. Biddlebox by Linda Smith
How to Turn a Bad Day Into a Delicious Cake
Sep 25, 2008 Melissa Morelli Lacroix
The Story
Mrs. Biddlebox begins with a drawing of a wide-eyed Mrs.Biddlebox splayed on her back in bed. Her covers and sheets are tangled and pulled, and though it is night, Mrs. Biddlebox is awake. Beside her bed, a pet goose is curled up sound asleep.
On the next page, Mrs. Biddlebox is sitting on the side of her bed. She has lost her nightcap, and a wirey poney-tail protrudes from the top off her head. Her pillow has fallen, and her covers are thrown off onto her goose, who appears to be either honking or stretching. Something grey and foreboding wafts through the window like smoke. The introductory stanza is written in a light corner of the room:
"On a knotty little hill,
In a dreary little funk,
Mrs.Biddlebox rolled over
On the wrong side of her bunk."
The birds, the creaking of her chair and even the breeze bother Mrs. Biddlebox. Her tea is bitter and her breakfast crumpets difficult to chew. Sitting at the table with a scowl on her face, Mrs. Biddlebox has an idea that she announces to her goose:
"I will cook away this rotten morning!
I will turn it into cake!
I will fire up my oven!
I will set the day to bake!"
Using a pot and a broom, Mrs. Biddlebox gathers up the gloom of the day. She twirls the fog, pulls at the sun, rolls up the grey sky, and fills her pot with the bad day. She whips, whisks, rolls and pats the day into dough. Then she stuffs it into a tin and dances, in twenty detailed poses, around the oven while it bakes. When the day is done, Mrs. Biddlebox sits down and eats it with delight.
The darkness of the day and most of the drawings is shattered by streams of moonlight bursting through the window as Mrs. Biddlebox welcomes the night with her pillow and blanket in hand. Then, snug tight in bed, a fluffy pillow beneath her head and her faithful goose at her side, Mrs. Biddlebox sleeps beneath a glorious, colourful, northern-lights sky.
Linda Smith
Linda Smith, author of Mrs. Biddlebox, Mrs. Crump's Cat, When Moon Fell Down, There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Boot, and The Inside Tree is not to be confused with the Alberta-born and based children's writer, who wrote, among many other books, Sir Cassie to the Rescue and The Turning Time. The author of Mrs. Biddlebox was a wife and mother of eight children and died of breast cancer in her early 40s in June 2000. She did not see any of her books in print. Mrs. Biddlebox was awarded the 2002 Border's New Voice Award.
Marla Frazee
Marla Frazee originally turned the Mrs. Biddlebox project down because, as she admitted to Cynthia Leitch Smith in September 2007, she was "afraid of it because [she'd] heard that [...] Linda Smith wrote the story while battling breast cancer and it was in response to a very bad day she was having as a result of her treatment." Nonetheless, Frazee "loved the text," so she returned to it and was hired to do the illustrations. Her efforts won her the 2002 Golden Kite Award.
Publishing History
Mrs. Biddlebox was published in 2002 by HarperCollins. Although it was a Parents' Choice Award Winner, a BookSense recommended book, and a Southern California Booksellers Association Award finalist, the book did not sell well. It was soon out of print, but it was reissued in 2007 by Harcourt Children's Books as Mrs. Biddlebox and Her Bad Day...And What She Did About It.
Front cover of the 2002 HarperCollins Edition of M
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