Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Mary and the Mouse, The Mouse and Mary
Illustrator: Barbara McClintock
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Random House, 2007 ISBN: 978-0375836091
Mary was a little girl who lived in a large house with her family. What Mary did not know, was that there was a mouse family living behind a wall in her house. Every day Mary went to school, and every day the little mouse girl went to school. Then, one day, Mary accidentally dropped a fork on the floor while she was clearing the dinner table. At the same time, the mouse girl dropped a spoon while she was clearing her dinner table. As they bent down to retrieve the fork and the spoon, Mary and the mouse saw one another.
Every night after that, Mary and the mouse “accidentally on purpose” dropped something so that they could wave to each other. They continued to do until Mary and the mouse grew up and moved away from home. Mary missed the mouse, and the mouse missed Mary. Then Mary became a mother and she moved into a new big house. When the mouse became a mother, she too moved into a big house, and guess whose house it was?
In this very clever and extraordinarily beautiful picture book, readers will see how a singular friendship between a human and a mouse develops, and how that friendship grows into something special.
Young readers will love exploring the incredibly detailed illustrations in the book, many of which show Mary’s home and the mouse’s home side-by-side.
