What can you do if your friends and family all take advantage of your good nature? When a lazy lion, a lion tamer, and a mouse all run away from the circus because they’re tired of working, a little stinkbug in the mouse’s ear comes along too. They find a vacant cottage and move in; while the three larger creatures sit in bed and watch the weather channel, the stinkbug sets to work cleaning and decorating. Of course, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, the other creatures start asking the bug for more, and eventually he rebels.

Fables use a story, often with animal characters, to impart a moral lesson about human behaviour. In classic fable style, Colleen Sydor’s colourful and funny tale ignores differences of size and physical ability, and uses the creatures as embodiments of laziness and greed on the one hand, and irrepressible energy and good nature on the other. Both the story and the vivid illustrations have an up-to-date feel, with surreal details like the lion tamer jumping out of the lion’s mouth. The stinkbug is fetchingly garbed in a checked pink sweater and red high-top running shoes. While his method of eventually getting rid of his sponging companions – by raising a mighty stink – is perhaps not so applicable for readers, the implied moral of appreciating the one who does all the housework for you is certainly relevant.

Winnipeg author Sydor is well matched here with Montreal illustrator Pascale Constantin, and the two have produced a picture-book fable that makes its point by amusing, not preaching.