Book Review: Mr. Tickle

Mr. Tickle is the original book in the Mr. Men series. It was written by Roger Hargreaves, after Adam - his son, and future successor as Mr. Men series author - asked him, what does a tickle look like?

It is a good question! And here is the apparent answer:

Another good question might be, what does a tickle act like? And the answer to that is rather disturbing.

Let me recap the Mr. Tickle story for you.

Mr. Tickle has "arms that stretch and stretch and stretch. Extraordinary long arms!"

At first, he uses his exceptional wingspan for innocent purposes, like raiding the kitchen without leaving his bed. Convenient!

But he then declares that "today looks like a tickling day!". There is no good intent here. He is "looking for anybody to tickle!"

First Mr. Tickle finds a teacher, and uses his long arms to tickle him mercilessly from outside the window. He ignores the desperate pleas of "Stop it! Stop it!", and leaves him a quivering, laughing wreck, humiliated in front of all his students.

That is just the start of his tickling rampage, with other victims being a traffic warden, a greengrocer, a train conductor, a doctor, a butcher, and the postie. No consent is asked for, or given. Mr. Tickle ruins lives, as well as causes millions of dollars of damage to the economy, and committing various criminal offences.

And he feels no remorse for his grave actions. Instead he goes home and sits in his armchair, where "he laughed and laughed every time he thought about all the people he tickled." That is, he laughed about the trail of destruction left by his tickling.

The final act just accentuates the horror.

Just think. Perhaps he's somewhere about at this very moment while you're reading this book.

Perhaps that extraordinary long arm of his is already creeping up to the door of this room.

Perhaps it's opening the door now and coming into the room. 

Perhaps, before you know what is happening, you will be well and truly... 

...TICKLED!