A Flat to Let [Room for Rent]

The timeless appeal of this fable in verse has made it a classic and a perennial favorite in Israeli children’s literature. Based on an East European folk tale, A Flat to Let has a simple but profound message: it is wise to be tolerant of one’s neighbors. “At the edge of a valley so quiet and pretty, / Stands a five-storey building far away from the city,” it begins, and describes the animal tenants on each floor: a fat hen, a cuckoo, a pampered black cat, a voracious squirrel. The fifth floor used to be occupied by Mr. Mouse, but he disappears, so the neighbors hang up a sign: “A Flat to Let.” The flat is shown to many animals. Each follows the same cycle of sing-song questions and exclamations. But each visitor objects to one of the other animals, and rejects the flat. The worst is the racist pig, who considers himself too pure and white to share a roof with the black cat. The neighbors let him have it: “You don’t want us, Pig, and we don’t want you! Now get out of here without further delay!” Finally a dove comes who likes the neighbors as much as the house. When she moves in, “the flat’s just fine. She hums and she coos nearly all of the time.” The tenants have finally found another animal as tolerant as themselves.