by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 23, 2010

The drawings are wonderful - as though Beatrix Potter met Walt Disney. Each picture resembles a cartoon, but they're showing mice in a household that's surprisingly realistic. All the little mice act like human children, with faces full of energy and enthusiasm.  But the plot starts when the overworked "Mama Mouse" decides she has two mice too many.  "Louie and Dan," she announces, "It is time for you to go out into the world and find a house of your own."

It feels like an old-fashioned fairy tale - with all the darkness of Hansel and Gretl. The two brothers walk into the woods alone - and night falls - leaving them cold in the shadows. Suddenly they spot a swooping owl, and duck under a tree. But the two mice have inadvertently discovered a cozy hollow hole. Now all that's missing is a bedtime story, like the ones their mother used to tell them!

Bonnie Pryor had already written other children's books about animals (including several about Grandpa Bear). But her books are really about families, using animals as a friendly substitute. For this book, she t eamed up with maryjane Begin, who's illustrated children's books, textbooks, and even some calendars. Together they create a nice story about the moment when two children first attempt to leave the nest.

The mice buy groceries to cook meals. They have an all-cookie meal the first day, but decide in the future to switch over to something healtier. Louie the mouse mops the floor, washes the dishes, and makes the bed. Dan the mouse brings home decorations. The brothers have a fight, and go to bed without talking to each other.

But I like how this book saves its biggest tension for the final, exciting scene. The boys hadn't really seen an owl after all when they'd discovered the house - it was only a falling leaf. But their mother had warned them the world "is full of cats and owls." And that night, there's a bump outside of their door.  Louie the mouse goes to check on the sack of decorations he'd brought home, and discovers two green eyes in the night, staring at him.

"'Hello', purred the cat. 'You look like a delicious snack.'"

Pryor played her surprise perfectly - leaving the reader to turn the page, only to discover a giant cat head looking down at the tiny mouse. And it's then that the quarreling brother buries his bad feelings long enough to do somethign ingenious.  He warns that cat that poor Louis is actually "a porcupine mouse." There'll be prickles and tummyaches if the cat tries to eat him - and this cat is just gullible enough to believe it. In the end the two brothers are safe after all.

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