A Mouse Told His Mother
| Author | Bethany Roberts |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Maryjane Begin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's fiction |
| Published | April 1997[1] |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company[1] |
| Pages | 32[1] (unpaged)[2] |
| ISBN | 0-316-74982-6 Search this book on  . |
A Mouse Told His Mother is a 1997 picture book by Bethany Roberts, with illustrations by Maryjane Begin. The book, about a mouse boy whose mother tries coaxing him to bed while he plans to take adventures, received critical acclaim.
Plot
A boy mouse boasts of going on an adventure during the nighttime hours, but on every attempt, his mother recommends doing or taking something more important on the way to bed;[1][3][4] the scenarios that unfold across the eleven double spreads[5] all begin with the title phrase.[2] At the end of the story, the mouse—still going on adventures in his imagination—flies down on a parachute across starry skies, much to the puzzlement of the mother who nonetheless wishes him, "Sweet dreams. And good night."[5]
Background
The book came out almost a year before Valentine Mice!, another Bethany Roberts work with mouse characters which served as the follow-up to 1995's Halloween Mice!.[6][7] Roberts' illustrator partner, Maryjane Begin, hailed from Providence, Rhode Island.[8]
Thematic analysis
Peter F. Neumeyer of The Boston Globe saw A Mouse Told His Mother as an alternative to Helen Cooper's The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Bed, which was published the same year[9] and used the same basic plot: "Mother wants [her child] to go to bed, child doesn't want to. True to formula, child departs on his own fantasy trip."[5]
Release and reception
Announced in July 1996,[10] A Mouse Told His Mother was published by Little, Brown in April 1997[1] to critical acclaim. Publishers Weekly called it "a captivating picture book...[in which] Roberts's neatly condensed prose plays straight man to Begin's minutely detailed and lushly panoramic artwork, which catapults readers into the mouse child's imaginative alter-world."[1] The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, along with Stephanie Loer of The Boston Globe, gave word on the engaging large-scale artwork.[4][11] "Here is a first-rate bedtime book," Loer's review concluded. "The story is clever, full of fantasy, fun, and adventure, but eventually it gets the job done—it lulls a child to sleep."[11]
Kirkus Reviews and the Language Arts journal observed the conversational dynamic between the mother and son in its pages,[3][12] which reminded the former and PW of Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny.[1][3] Publishers Weekly, along with Christy Norris in the School Library Journal, respectively took note of the title words' "skillful" and "lulling" repetition.[1][2]
Ilene Cooper of Booklist concurred with PWs reviewers,[13] as did SLJs Norris: "Delightful...thoughtful and well-illustrated... Begin's illustrations successfully blend little mouse's fantasies with reality. When he imagines he's flying an airplane, his patchwork quilt becomes the landscape below."[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Devereaux, Elizabeth; Roback, Diane (1997-03-17). "Review: 'A Mouse Told His Mother'". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 244 no. 11. p. 82. ISSN 0000-0019. ProQuest 197029558. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Norris, Christy (May 1997). "Review: 'A Mouse Told His Mother'". School Library Journal. Vol. 43 no. 5. p. 112. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Review: 'A Mouse Told His Mother'". Kirkus Reviews. No. 7. 1997-04-01. ISSN 1948-7428. ProQuest 917364983. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Basbanes, Nicholas A. (1997-05-04). "Some new twists spice up children's favorites". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. p. C5. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Neumeyer, Peter F. (1998-04-05). "Our Mistaken Rage to Improve Children". The Boston Globe. p. K2. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Cooper, Ilene (1997-12-15). "Review: 'Valentine Mice!'". Booklist. Vol. 94 no. 8. p. 704. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Maughan, Shannon (1995-09-18). "Review: 'Halloween Mice!'". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 242 no. 38. p. 89. ISSN 0000-0019. ProQuest 197012500. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via Gale General OneFile.
- ↑ Kaplan, Michael (January 1996). "Maryjane Begin". Communication Arts. Vol. 37 no. 8. Palo Alto, Texas. p. 94. ISSN 0010-3519. ProQuest 215884104.
- ↑ Marino, Jane (July 1997). "Review: 'The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Sleep'". School Library Journal. Vol. 43 no. 7. p. 60. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Stone, Alison (1996-07-22). "Sneak previews: Spring 1997 children's books" (PDF). Publishers Weekly. Vol. 243 no. 30. p. 211. ISSN 0000-0019. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Loer, Stephanie (1998-04-19). "Mice are the stars of new storybooks". The Boston Globe. p. N7. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Watson, Dorothy (December 1997). "Beyond Decodable Texts—Supportive and Workable Literature" (PDF). Language Arts. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. 74 (8): 639. ISSN 0360-9170. JSTOR 41482925. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Cooper, Ilene (1997-04-01). "Review: 'A Mouse Told His Mother'". Booklist. Vol. 93 no. 15. p. 1339. ISSN 0006-7385. ProQuest 235381840. Retrieved 2023-07-07 – via Gale General OneFile.
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