The Mystery Crash

I couldn’t find bupkis about this book and author and was literally at a loss for words. Rimshot. Then I stumbled upon ol’ Van Powell’s real name, Howard Roger Garis. Now, his name alone did nothing for me, but subsequent research unearthed perhaps his most famous creation, the one and only Uncle Wiggily Longears. For a good year or two growing up, my favorite game was Uncle Wiggily. It’s a board game in the “racing” variety, where you advance along a track based on the luck of the draw of cards. So, no skill involved. What appealed to me was the anthropomorphization of animals. Uncle Wiggily himself was of course a rabbit, but he was a sophisticated friggin’ rabbit. A real Victorian type. He wore a top hat, bow tie, vest, and something I don’t recall for some reason: he was lame from rheumatism and relied on a crutch. That seems odd for a children’s book character, but maybe not.