Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Boat
Wordless Picture Book
For ages 6 and up
Creative Editions, 2014 ISBN: 978-1568462523
A little mouse has run across the blank page. It appears to be in a frightful hurry and collapses, clearly exhausted from its exertions. After it has rested, paw to brow, for a while, it starts to chew the corner of the page. It peeks through the chewed edges at the scene that lies on the other side and then it pauses to deliberate. Something it has seen on the next page is worrying the mouse.
The mouse then makes a decision and it chews and chews until it has chewed a neat large square out of the middle of the page. As water pours out of the scene on the next page onto our page we can see why the mouse was worried. The sea is coming out of the page beyond into our page, and the water level is rising. What is the mouse going to do?
From the moment readers start looking at this book they are going to be captivated by the story. They will feel as if they are looking down at a real mouse who is really chewing a hole in the page. The mouse is not only realistic, but it also has a very expressive face (and feet and tail), and readers will be eager to see what the mouse does next.
