Different cover.

Children's book purchased for a Halloween release.
(Decided to keep it for a bit and give this a read after hearing a little about it online....)

Don't be misled by this book's cover, with its gentle picture of a windup toy mouse hand in hand with his small son. The Mouse and His Child is and isn't a children's book but it is not recommended for the soft hearted of any age.

The title characters, a mouse and his child, are toys who seem quite astonished to find themselves in the world, moving from a toyshop to display items under a Christmas tree to, quite suddenly, the dump. Despite his father's doubts, despite the adversity of the world including the wicked Manny Rat, the child holds onto and attempts to realize his dream of finding and making his toyshop companions, a windup elephant and a windup seal, his mother and sister, and finding and making the toyshop's dolls' house his family home.

I'm making it sound much more treacly than it is, however. There is hope and redemption in this story, but there is also cruelty and death. Like most good children's stories, it can be read simply as a wonderful adventure if you are ten or as a sophisticated fantasy with clever dialogue and deep meaning if you are twenty.

I liked it so much that I went right back and read it again when I finished. I would caution against reading by or with the most sensitive of readers.

Favorite quotes:

p. 17 "He (the child) had no idea what a mama might be, but he knew at once that he needed one badly."

p. 23-24 "'What shall we do now?'
'Who knows?' said the father. 'There seems to be a good deal more to the world than the Christmas tree and the attic and the dustbin. Anything at all might happen, I suppose.'"

p. 70 "'The bottom of a pond,' she squawked, 'mud, ooze, rubbish, and water plants. Two tin cans, standing upright, half buried in mud at centre stage.'
An irate weasel rose from the audience, baring his white teeth in a snarl. 'You watch that stuff,' he shouted. 'We don't want none of your modern filth around here.'

p. 82 Muskrat's Much-in-Little: 'Why times How equals What.'

p. 68 Beyond the Last Visible Dog by the Caws of Art

p. 108 "'We must get out of here (the bottom of a pond),' said the father.
'One has no need to get out of here,' said Serpentina. 'One is at home on the bottom. One sees below the surface of things. One thinks in depth and acquires profundity.'"

pp. 111-112 The character of Mudd: "'...I just can't believe I'm this thing you see crawling about in the muck. I don't feel as if I am. I simply can't tell you how I feel inside. Clean and bright and beautiful---like a song in the sunlight, like a sigh in the summer air....'"

p. 121 "'We have survived bank robbery, war, the Caws of Art, the breaking of the dam, and the contemplation of infinity, only to come to this.'"

Released on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 at West Gray Cafe in Houston, Texas USA.

Taking along to the MeetUp tonight....

Okay, people, this book is BAD. Just plain BAD. One of the absolute WORST books I've ever read. BADLy written, poorly thought out, uninteresting... I had to force myself to finish it, skipping entire paragraphs at a time becuase it was just so godawful BAD. The characters are zero-dimensional, inconsistent and uninspiring. They do things for no discernable reason and there are no redeemable qualities about most of them. And the drawings! Ugh! Drab, dismal, muddy scratchings.

The ONLY thing about this book I found interesting was the concept of "the Last Visible Dog," which the author manages to give both philosophical and literal meaning. Why didn't he apply that creativity to the rest of the book??

RELEASE NOTES:

released to BC group

I brought this book back home with me tonight after the Meetup.

RELEASE NOTES:

Off in Kristen's Turkeys and Treasures Bookbox!