Tillie and Mert

by Ida Luttrell, Doug Cushman (Illustrator)

Being best friends doesn't always mean seeing eye to eye. Tillie and Mert do everything together - but each in her own way, and no matter what, they stick together.

Abridged edition contains only two stories, omitting the fortune teller story.

Genres: Childrens

44 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Michael Fitzgerald]

So now I have read the gloriously unabridged version of this easy reader.

It contains three stories instead of two. The additional story is "Sister Alice" and is about how Tillie dresses up as a fortune teller and becomes famous, treating Mert poorly in the course of things.

Now, the elephant in the room is that this book was published and then it was republished in an abridged edition. It's an EASY READER, for heaven's sake. What gives? Here's my wild speculation on why. The excised story has content that was considered unacceptable for a significant portion of the target market. The abridged version was published through the "Weekly Reader" I Can Read Book Club. So I imagine that someone with clout received (or got a summary of) the original version of this book, thought about sensitivities of real or imagined members, and cried, "Fortune telling? That's magic and witchcraft! Think of the children! We can't have that! Fie and begone!" And because the Weekly Reader membership was such a large population, they instead got a neutered version with all crystal balls removed. Since the Weekly Reader versions were printed separately anyway, I don't know whether this was an inconvenience for the publisher (the originals weren't recalled or anything).

While there are new editions (not involving Weekly Reader) of easy readers that have been changed from the originals (often artwork, sometimes text), I do not know of any other situation where there is an abridged I Can Read book.

Again, the above is based only on speculation.

And incidentally, my overall assessment has not changed. This is not a masterpiece. You can miss the middle story. Or you can miss the entire book. No loss. Go get "A Bargain for Frances" instead. There's a masterpiece.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Stupidly bought this abridged edition. It's OK, kind of bland. I feel like these animals would wish they were in The Wind in the Willows instead of this much more mundane world.

[Mellanie C]

I first read this when I lived in Panama.

[Jamie Winslow]

The first part of the book was about how Tillie and Mert went to their neighbor, Weasel's garage sale. Mert didn't want to go because she knew that Weasel had bad bargains but she went anyways because Mert wanted her to. When they got their Tillie bought an umbrella, a purse, and a tea pot. On the way home from the garage sale it started to rain. When they opened up the umbrella there was a hole in it which got bigger the harder it rained. As they ran to get out of the rain all of Tillie's money fell out of her new purse. When they finally made it inside they went to make tea in Tillie's new tea pot and tea leaked all over her table cloth. All Tillie's bargains were bad. She used the umbrella for a hook, the tea pot for a flower pot, and the purse she hung on the wall to always remind her not to buy bargains from Weasel.
The second half of the book was about Tillie and Mert's great idea to get rich by opening a grocery store. Tillie was in charge of the working the desk and Mert was in charge of stocking the shelves. Tillie thought paying the bills was too boring. Mert sold the wrong items to customers because the shelves were stocked all out of order. Tillie reminded Mert that the customers are always right and she corrected their purchases with what they really wanted. When they got that sorted out the lights to the store went out and Mert found out that Tillie had not paid the bills. They decided to switch positions and the store ran much better and they had the best store in town. They did not become rich but they felt that way.

[Cws]

JEAR2-Lut

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy)]

Very frog and toad like...