Mrs. McNosh Hangs up Her Wash

Mrs McNosh Hangs up her Wash (CAN, JP, US, INT)

Written by: Sarah Weeks

Illustrated by: Nadine  Bernard Westcott

Published by: HarperCollins

Published on: May 7, 2002

Ages: 3+








Girls' Day has passed, the plum blossoms line the roads, and the weather is warming up. It's spring again in Japan.

For me this means something practical- it is the best season for me to hang up the wash outside. You see, in most of Japan dryers are practically nonexistant. Everyone hangs up their wash outside their house. But where I live, over a small body of water from a very active volcano, dryers are much more common because of the ash that rains down on us in the summer. Winter and spring are usually ash-free, just because of the wind patterns, not because it stops spewing ash! But I hate clothes dried outside in the winter, and I hate having to iron clothes because they go crispy in the cold.

There's nothing like the smell of line-dried clean sheets fresh with the smell of spring blooms.

I think Mrs. McNosh would agree. She likes laundry a lot more than I do though, and even does it by hand on an old laundry board!

This Mrs. McNosh books is a fun read but it makes me feel old. My kids have no idea about handwashing clothes or that hanging up a phone is not just an expression! I better go out and buy one of these.

This book is funny, the verse is well-written and catchy, and the illustrations tickle the funny bones of pre-schoolers whether English speakers or not. What I like best about the book is the word play- great for reinforcing all the different meanings and tenses of to hang- not the easiest verb in the English language!