Monday 10 May 2021

The Big Orange Splot


The Big Orange Splot
By Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Mr. Plumbean lives on a street where all the houses look the same. Everybody liked it that way. "This is a neat street," they would say, but everything changes when a seagull flying overhead drops a big, orange splot of paint on Mr. Plumbean's roof. (No one knows why he was carrying the bucket of paint.)


At first Mr Plumbean mutters that he will need to repaint, but the more and more his neighbours urge him to do so, he realizes he doesn’t want to have a regular house. He takes the plunge and decides to paint his house to reflect his colourful dreams. "Mr. Plumbean's house was like a rainbow. It was like a jungle. It was like an explosion" and it made people furious. "Plumbean has popped his cork, flipped his wig, blown his stack, and dropped his stopper." One by one, the neighbours sent each other to go talk some good sense into the man. And one by one, another house on the street exploded into people’s colourful dreams. There were castles, ships, and crocodiles!
 

This is the story of a man embracing his individuality in a conformist society. The message that it is brave and good to break away from conformity and embrace one’s own individuality is a really fun one to learn with Mr. Plumbean!


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