The Grudge Keeper

How do you resolve a grudge? Take it to the Grudge Keeper! But be careful not to accumulate too many.

No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge. No one, that is, except Cornelius, the Grudge Keeper. Ruffled feathers, petty snits, minor tiffs and major huffs, insults, umbrage, squabbles, dust-ups, and imbroglios—the Grudge Keeper received them all, large and small, tucking each one carefully away in his ramshackle cottage.

Gradually the grudges accumulate as Minnie Fletcher’s goat eats Elvira Bogg’s prizewinning petunias, Sylvester Quincy snags the schoolmaster’s toupee, and Big Otto stomps on Lily Belle’s feet during the spring fling.

One night the wind rises, flinging together the people and their grudges, scrambling the squabbles with the quibbles and piling the lows blows and the high dudgeon together. And where is Cornelius?

Mara Rockliff has ridden an elephant, swallowed fried grasshoppers, lived on a commune, flown a hang glider (and crashed), peered into a live volcano, hiked up a glacier and alarmed a moose, and driven a hundred-year-old car (and DIDN'T crash!). She is the author of many lively books for children. She lives in Massachusetts with her family and a small, yappy pet peeve

Eliza Wheeler grew up in Wisconsin in a family of teachers, musicians, and artists and received a degree in art and design from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She is the bestselling illustrator-author of Miss Maple's Seeds and was a recipient of the prestigious Sendak Fellowship.