PERCY AND THE FIVE HOUSES

In a wryly exaggerated fable for budding yuppies, Percy (a beaver) is lucky enough to find a fistful of real gold on a riverbank. Ferd the fox is delighted to take the gold in exchange for membership in the House of the Month Club—not quite the expected swindle, since the houses do arrive on schedule. But the cardboard mansion blows away, the castle melts in the rain, the camper is mouse-sized—and by the time December produces an igloo, Percy is ready to return to his own perfectly satisfactory beaver house. Stevenson augments the humor of this winning, offbeat tale in his usual deft, witty style.