The Yeti has long been an unresolved mystery of the folklore of Himalayan communities. Can the existence of the great, lumbering, hairy beast be verified, or is it just a myth?
All these questions are cast aside in an astounding revelation by the precocious Betty.
The Yeti does exist. More surprising is that the Yeti is really an arctic hobo with dreadful dress-sense, and even less common-sense.
On her way to discovering the truth about Yetis, Betty embarks on a journey across the Arctic wasteland using her powerful animal husbandry skills to converse with the wildlife she encounters. Everyone talks in rhyme and discriminates against the homeless.
As it turns out, whales, polar bears and arctic hares are all prejudiced against the homeless. As if that’s not enough, they also mock the Yeti’s fashion-sense. No wonder, in an attempt to redress the wrongs of his taste in clothing, he undresses and scatters his garments to the four winds, nearly freezing to death in the process. Bettie eventually finds the fool cowering behind a large rock, eventually persuading him to put something on.
Through Betty, her heroine, Ella Burfoot tackles some important issues in this book. Preconceived ideas like Talking animals do not exist and People freeze to death in the snow if they don’t wear clothes are cheerfully spat upon in rhyming couplet.
Ella Burfoot goes further. She digs to the very foundation of discrimination, fear of the unknown, and unearths it for what it is — something even talking, imaginary, snow-induced-hallucinatory animals do. Ultimately we see how nothing is as it seems, and even ugly smelly clothes that jingle can be acceptable if we would just give them half a chance.
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