Pete, a badger, liked to keep everything neat, and in a forest, that’s especially hard to do. While the fox might not mind the grooming and the owl seemed to be fine with the bath, trees are a bit harder to tidy up. Pete goes a bit far after the trees lose all their leaves, one thing leads to another and–cement. Pete couldn’t get to his underground burrow or find a thing to eat. Tidy by Emily Gravett serenades nature in all its messy glory.
Compare Pete to Grimelda, The Very Messy Witch, also told in rhyme, and give a listen to Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. They paved paradise. And put up a parking lot…