Easy Work! An Old Tale retold by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Andrew Glass

Bibliography:

Kimmel, Eric A. 1998. Easy work! an old tale. Ill. by Andrew Glass. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 0823413497

Plot:

Kimmel takes a traditional Norwegian tale of a man and woman switching roles and sets it on America’s frontier. Mr. and Mrs. McTeague travel the Oregon Trail to a new life.  When Mr. McTeague comes home each night worn from his hard work clearing the land for their farm, he is doubtful that Mrs. McTeague’s responsibilities can cause nearly so much fatigue.  Mrs. McTeague’s suggestion that they switch roles for a day results in a predictably humorous disaster as he discovers that Mrs. McTeague’s jobs may not be such “easy work.”

Analysis:

As he describes in an author’s note at the end of the text, Kimmel was inspired to write this story by an anecdote from the life of suffragette Abigail Scott Duniway in which she listens to a farmer boast of the life of ease his wife enjoyed and discovers that the wife is at home chopping firewood. Kimmel found a connection between Mrs. Duniway’s experience and the traditional Norwegian tale “The Husband who Was to Mind the House” and set his version of the tale on Oregon’s frontier. Mrs. McTeague is portrayed in the story as hardworking like the farmer’s wife, patient in face of her husband’s complaining, and forgiving of the mess that he creates while the husband comes across as bumbling, boastful, and inept.

The American setting does not alter the tale much from the original.  Both versions challenge the concept of gender roles and “men’s work” versus “women’s work” in a way that may seem obvious to a modern reader but would have been more revolutionary when the tale originated.

Glass’s illustrations complement the story well especially capturing the comic aspects of the story in vivid colors.  The colloquialisms used in the dialogue by Mr. McTeague connect to the oral tradition of storytelling.

Awards & Reviews: 

From Booklist: “Kimmel’s version of a story that has become a staple of feminist folktale collections will be a cheery alternative to, say, P. C. Asbjornsen and J. E. Moe’s The Man Who Kept House (1992) and a good replacement for Wanda Gag’s out-of-print Gone Is Gone.”

School Library Journal review: “ . . . Easy Work would make an enjoyable addition to most collections.”

Connections:

• Use in a storytime with farm stories. 
• Use in conjunction with other texts both fiction and nonfiction about the Oregon Trail (especially Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter)
• Share the author note that details Kimmel’s inspiration for the story and make connections to women’s rights/suffrage.
• For older children, this story would be good to compare with its other versions and variants:

Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen, and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe. 1963. East of the sun and west of the moon and other tales. New York: Macmillan. 

Gág, Wanda. 1935. Gone is gone, or, The story of a man who wanted to do housework. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc.

Goode, Diane. 1992. Diane Goode's book of silly stories & songs. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN 0525449671

Gurvin, Abe. 1968. The husband who was to mind the house. New York: Young Readers Press.

Littledale, Freya, and Molly Delaney. 1987. The farmer in the soup: retold from the Norse Tale, the husband who was to mind the house. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0590401947