Hiya! I’m Agatha Jane Parrot and THANKS for reading this book. It’s very nice of you, because the title is a bit strange!
If you want to know why this book is called The Heart of Mud, it’s something that somebody says later on in the story. If you like, you can flip through the pages and see if you can spot who says it. Remember, you’re on page 2 now, so I’ll wait here and you can come back when you’ve found it.
I’ll just hum some waiting music . . . Tum-tee-tiddly-tum!
If you think the title is kind of silly, it could have been a LOT worse. There’s one part in the story where my friend Ivy sends secret messages with her leg! It’s true. She really does, so Ivy wanted this book to be called Ivy Malting and Her Secret-Message-Sending Leg. Ha ha! But it was too long to fit on the front, so we used that title for one of the chapters instead.
Before we start, I should warn you that this book does have a bit of LOVE in it. (That’s why it has Heart in the title.)
Don’t worry. There’s no long kissing or holding hands or anything gross like that. YUCK! We don’t do that sort of thing on Odd Street—except once. It was Dad’s birthday, so Mom had to give him a kiss, but they didn’t like it much because he’s bald and she’s got hairy legs. What a pity Mom couldn’t take the hairs off her legs and plant them on Dad’s head! That would have been an awesome birthday present for him. How very thoughtful.
Anyway, Ivy’s leg is waiting for you, so we’d better get on with the story. WAHOO!