by Moe Zilla

Created on: September 23, 2010

"It was Tuesday in Arizona , and things were not goin' well." The book opens as a donkey tosses its rider - dazing the balding man with a long grey beard.  But his donkey wanders off by Wednesday, and the cactus starts to bloom. He digs for gold in the ground on Thursday, until the weather becomes swelteringly hot.

It's a fun look at life in the desert - but the book's real story is in its illustrations.  The neighbors "stopped by an' cleaned house" on Sunday - though the illustration reveals that they're armed robbers. Friday was dark and gloomy, with a pack rat walking across an empty shelf and finding "nothing to nibble in the morning." So when the narrator writes that by Saturday morning, "things were definitely lookin' up," it's the illustration that reveals why. The pack rat has carried the prospector's only can opener up to the top of a tall cactus!

The book was created by a husband and wife team, which may explain the close interplay between its text and pictures. The narration sticks to its hopeful and positive tone, while the illustrations show all the prospector's troubles. There's funny and colorful illustrations, like the tiny pop-eyed sheriff bouncing along on his horse. The unlucky prospector has big feet and a big nose, making him the perfect fall guy for all of the book's hardship.

The story is just a list of his never-ending troubles, and he seems to never have time to hunt for gold. But don't worry, the book saves a surprise for its happy ending. "Before you read this story, you need to know something about pack rats," warns the first page. "Pack rats like to collect bright-colored treasures and often drop whatever they happen to be carrying if they find something they think is more interesting."

The pack rat scoops up all the furniture the robbers left behind - including the prospector's mouse trap. It even eats all the prospector's last beans, prompting him to pack his things to leave the state. "Monday evenin' things were lookin' mighty bright," notes the narration wryly, "in places like Kansas and Kentucky ." As the prospector packs up all his last belongings into a wagon, the pack rat sneaks into his camp, and steals a belt buckle while the prospector sleeps.

And of course, the pack rat leaves behind what he'd been carrying last - an enormous nugget of gold. The prospector pulls out his magnifying glass, and under the starlight, follows the pack rat's tiny footprints. Soon he discovers the pack rat's tiny home, which is covered with enormous gold rocks. And the book's last illustration reveals that the smiling prospector eventually became rich.

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