Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary

MARY LIVED IN A BIG HOUSE with a very little mouse. The mouse lived in a little house inside of a very big house, with Mary. Even though Mary has been warned to stay away from mice—and Mouse has been warned to steer clear of people—the two can't help but peek at one another. Side by side, they grow up, go to college, get married, and have children of their own—Maria and MouseMouse. And then one day, Maria and MouseMouse do something surprising . . . something their parents never did. They actually come nose-to-nose and speak to one another!

"'Admirers of The Borrowers and The Tale of Two Bad Mice will smile at this beguiling comparison of human- and mouse-scale worlds, Donofrio's (Riding in Cars with Boys) children's debut. Mary, a midcentury child who favors flouncy skirts, lives with parents and siblings. In the same house, behind a wall, lives a mouse who 'had a mother and a father and a sister and a brother, too.' Mary learns to beware of mice; the mouse, of people. 'So Mary didn't tell her family about the mouse. And the mouse didn't tell about Mary.' Nonetheless, Mary often steals a glimpse inside the mousehole to exchange a wave with her friend. With an antique palette and an engraver's fluid line, McClintock (Adle & Simon) designs ingenious accessories for the anthropomorphic mice. When a newly hippie-ish Mary leaves for college in a VW Beetle, the mouse packs her things in a walnut shell. Mary's dorm room matches the mouse's underground home, down to the green bedspread, yellow sheets and overflowing hamper; Mary's striped pink rug looks just like the pink sock by the mouse's bed. Eventually Mary raises her own children in a modern, glass-walled house, and her daughter, Maria, meets the mouse's child. True, Donofrio and McClintock indulge in nostalgia and pay no heed to rodents' life expectancy. Yet only a jaded reader could fail to be bewitched by McClintock's meticulous panels or her piquant cover art, with its swingy hand-lettering and swaying heroines. Donofrio and McClintock give exquisite attention to the girl's and mouse's parallel lives, emphasizing cross-generational connections and shared secrets. Ages 3-7.' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"

Mary lives in a big house with a very little mouse. The mouse lives in a little house inside of a very big house. Even though Mary is warned to stay away from mice--and Mouse is warned to steer clear of people--the two can't help but peek at one another. Full color.

Beverly Donofrio is the author of the memoir Riding in Cars with Boys, which was made into a film starring Drew Barrymore. This is her first book for children. She lives in Mexico.

 

Barbara McClintock is the illustrator of many highly acclaimed New York Times Best Illustrated Books, including Adele & Simon, an ALA Notable Book, which she also wrote. She lives in Windham, Connecticut.