The Hamster Who Borrowed a Bulldozer
An adult hamster builder borrows an enormous bulldozer to move one stubborn pebble. Fixing the spectacularly oversized solution takes a team of neighbors who each know something about being small.
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How it begins
The bulldozer was bigger than Hazel's house.
This was encouraging.
The pebble was smaller than her breakfast bowl.
This was also encouraging.
Between them, Hazel expected very little difficulty.
She parked the bulldozer, switched it off, and climbed down the steps wearing her yellow hard hat.
Then she discovered the first difficulty.
The bulldozer had parked across the entire lane.
Fox could not pass with the bread cart.
Duck could not pass with the laundry.
Mina Mole could pass underneath, but said that was not a transport policy.
"I'm moving the pebble," Hazel explained.
Everyone looked at it.
The pebble sat beside a newly painted doorway.
It looked comfortable.
"Why?" asked Mina.
"Because it's in the way."
"Of what?"
Hazel opened her building plan.
The doorway led directly toward the pebble.
Behind the doorway stood a shed.
Behind the shed lay a perfectly good patch of open ground.
Mina adjusted her spectacles.
"Could the door go on the other side?"
Hazel looked at the shed.
Then at the plan.
Then at the bulldozer.
She had spent a long time choosing the bulldozer.
It had excellent tracks, a splendid seat, and a horn that made nearby cabbages tremble.
She had not spent nearly as long choosing the door.
Fox set down the bread cart.
"Would you like us to help think?"
Hazel almost said she had already done the thinking.
Then Duck tried to squeeze a basket past the bulldozer and lost three socks.
"Yes," Hazel said.
Mina drew a small question mark at the top of the plan.
Hazel watched.
"What does that measure?"
"Whether we're fixing the right thing."
Around them, the neighbors gathered.
The pebble remained exactly where it was.
For the first time that morning, nobody seemed worried about that.
Hazel took out her pencil.
It was much smaller than the bulldozer.
It turned out to be more useful.
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Outline and characters
Develop this idea
Aim this comic illustrated chapter-book idea at roughly ages five to eight. Hazel is an adult trained builder; the story should not invite children to operate real machinery. Keep the bulldozer parked during the neighbors' investigation. Use scale for visual humor, and let the small characters contribute different practical skills. The lesson should emerge from solving the right problem, not from mocking enthusiasm.
- Hazel borrows a bulldozer to move a stubborn pebble
- The machine is safely parked but blocks the lane
- Neighbors arrive with increasingly large suggestions
- Mina asks what the pebble is actually stopping
- The problem turns out to be a poorly placed doorway
- Hazel admits she chose the machine partly because it looked impressive
- Small neighbors measure and redesign the route
- A team moves the loose pebble with a simple safe shared plan
- The bulldozer returns without being needed
- Hazel adds a question mark to the start of every future building plan
Characters
- Hazel Hamster, 34. Qualified woodland builder
- Mina Mole, 41. Small-space engineer
Series possibilities
- Hazel is hired to build a tiny bridge and discovers the river has changed its mind about where to flow.
