It's been suggested-by people who don't know her-that Susan Musgrave must get some of her inspiration from dealings with institutions such as maximum security penitentiaries and public schools.
Perhaps it was Musgrave's school memories, coupled with the child-accurate expressions of her young daughter Sophie, that have led to Dreams Are More Real Than Bathtubs (Orca $17.95).
The narrator, about to tackle Grade One, recalls her dreams - Mum as a witch, the fear-us tiger, and flying over her new school in a red bathtub as a stuffed Lion pulls the plug.
Morning comes and she eats breakfast with 'one gone tooth' and heads to school where bullies say 'sunnish Lion' looks 'bumish-colour' to them. At recess she sings, "All the kids hate me.";
The day improves at lunch when our plucky heroine meets her new best friend who has a 'stuffy' herself named Seal.
Tomorrow's looking good. She'll bring Old Mum for Show 'n' Tell. She'll say, "I got her when I was very small."; And she's not just dreaming.
The little girl bounces over the word trampoline and crawls through the dirt as a worm. Marie-Louise Gay, known for her work on Lizzie's Lion and Moonbeam on a Cat's Ear, has wrapped her lively illustrations seamlessly around the text.
The tiger is 'fear-us' (fierce). And Old Mom wears the grin of a versatile and gifted writer who just might have been shortlisted for a Governor-General's Award four times. 1-55143-107-6

[BCBW WINTER 1998]