When I told my daughters the title of the book, both of them groaned at me. Why? Because, kids don't like to clean their rooms. Sure, parents and caregivers can help kids make a game out of cleaning their rooms, but it usually still takes effort. Anyway, my kids agreed to listen to the story so we read it as a bedtime story. We did think the title should be changed to something different to avoid other children not wanting to read the story.
We don't really know many kids who actually like to clean their rooms.
We did like the story, and the illustrations were nice. The story is about three bunnies who were playing in their bedroom with their toys. They get bored and want to go outside, even though their mom told them to clean up before she gets home. They figure they'll have enough time to clean, so they go outside to play. When the one bunny went back to the bedroom to look for a ball, the story suggests he couldn't believe his eyes with how messy the room was. This was funny to me because most kids don't really care about the mess and don't even notice the mess. After the toy train is broken because the room is so messy that the bunny trips and breaks the train, the bunnies clean up the mess. They make a game of cleaning up, which is a nice way to teach children to make a game of it, but it is unlikely kids would do so without adult encouragement. Then when the toys are all cleaned up, the bunnies don't want to play anymore because they don't want to make another mess to clean up again. I had to laugh again because It is unlikely kids would not want to play just because they don't want to clean up. The bunnies decide that they will play, but only play with one thing at a time and put it away before getting another toy out to play with. Nice idea, but again, it is unlikely children will think of this on their own without adult supervision and encouragement.
Overall, there are great lessons for children to learn in cleaning up their rooms. However, the way the story is presented, I'm wondering if children will want to re read the story again to reinforce those lessons. I believe it would still take a lot of encouragement from adults for the lessons to really be learned from this book. Perhaps if the title were different, and the story focused on the broken toy and the importance of keeping a clean room to prevent broken toys. Maybe that would have been a better presentation for kids to understand and carry over into their everyday lives as they play.
Jessica D. Adams, Author of The Underground Toy Society