Mouse Mess

Rating:
Summary: A little-known gem
Review: This book is a sleeper. No one seems to know about it; mycolleagues had never heard of it. This is a shame because the bookis a gem. First of all, the cut paper illustrations are superb. The perspective is interesting, with a "mouse-eye" view of the counter top (huge cereal boxes, teacups, Oreo cookies, and so forth). Then there's the mouse--surely the most vibrant, personality-filled creature ever rendered in paper. He climbs, he runs, he bathes...and he makes Eric Carle's animals look rigid and grotesque. The rhyming text is a lot of fun. My two-year-old can recite the whole thing. The story is simple and funny. A mouse goes into the kitchen at night, makes a huge mess, and then leaves it. This might turn off some parents. I mean, the mouse is unapologetic (in fact, he announces, "These people need to clean their house!") and he doesn't get into trouble for making the mess either. He just goes to sleep, presumably to do the same naughty thing the next night. For some reason, however, I found this hysterical--a refreshing break from usual diet of cutesy morality pieces. In fact, because the story is unpredictable in this way, it would appeal to older children, as well as toddlers. END

Rating:
Summary: We loved it so much we need a new copy!
Review: We found this book at a school book fair about 2 years ago for my daughter who was 2 at the time. She loved it so much that our soft cover copy is in tatters and I need to get a new hardcover one. I had a broken leg a few months after we got the book and so she would have to go and get her own book and bring it to me to read. This was the only one she brought for weeks at a time. We could hear her reciting it to herself sometimes in bed at night, or when she was taking a bath, just about all the time. We don't know anyone else who knows about this book, but it is so wonderful and fanciful that all my 5 kids just love it. The pictures are full of color, the idea is mischevious, and the text is simply put without being simple. I highly recommend it.