cover image Mouse Around

Mouse Around

Pat Schories. Farrar Straus Giroux, $13 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-374-35080-2

This engaging, wordless picture book traces the odyssey of an inquisitive mouse who travels up from the basement, unobserved, in a plumber's pocket. By hiding in rolled newspapers, shopping bags and even a donut hole, the sly fellow takes a tour of the outside world before coming back to the basement at day's end. Simple in concept and design, Schories's pictures tell a story with several diverting subplots effectively and with great charm, while offering the fun and challenge of hunting for the mouse on each page. Each spread typically contains several boxed illustrations, including small close-ups that link the action of the larger frames, spotlight dramatic or humorous moments and help readers to pick out the mouse, often visible as only a tail. Ages 3-6. (May)