by Moe Zilla

Created on: July 22, 2010

"From the day Mouse was born, he wanted a home. A real home."

Kay Chorao lives in New York City, and according to the book's jacket, her book's illustrations were inspired by the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine - and by her own pet mouse, Martha. (Chorao describes the mouse as "a real member of the family.") In her story, a New York City mouse accidentally discovers the perfect hiding place when an orange cat chases him down the street. The Mouse runs up "some broad, stone steps" - and discovers himself someplace vast and mysterious.

I like how author-illustrator Chorao remains faithful to the mouse-eye perspective. She notes the echoes and the flickering candles, plus the carved sculptures which frighten the confused little mouse. He's not even welcomed by the other mice which live in the church organ, though eventually he nestles down underneath a strange carved lamb. But soon he's fleeing again - to escape a large hymnbook that's suddenly falling through the air!

I didn't realize churches were so exciting - but I guess they are to a mouse! And Kay Chorao describes all the specific things this mouse would encounter in the interior of this real-life church. It seems like at heart, she's got a New Yorker's love for the big city where she lives. Even when describing the mouse's life in the outside world, she noted lots of real-life details about the city neighborhood where the mouse had been living.  ("No one saw him sniff the stalks of sugarcane and crates of fruit outside the bodega.")

"Light fell jewel-bright through windows," Chorao writes, and her descriptions of the church are fond and vivid. Soon the happy mouse is dancing in the colorful light from the stained-glass window, and Chorao makes sure that her story leads the mouse to a happy ending. There's a kindly sculptor who works in the church, and he starts leaving behind bread and cheese behind for the mouse to find. The mouse is wary - like a true city mouse - but over time, the man wins his confidence. And soon the mouse is keeping him company while he works on his sculptures.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, the next thing the sculptor carves for the cathedral is: a giant mouse. But the sculpture also includes a mouse-sized tunnel which opens up into a cozy home that he'd carved so the mouse would finally have a real home of his own.

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