cover image Jonathan Mouse

Jonathan Mouse

Ingrid Ostheeren. NorthSouth, $11.95 (25pp) ISBN 978-0-03-005848-6

Caught taking bacon by an old lady who knows magic, Jonathan mouse has a spell cast on him, which will turn him the color of whatever he eats. While Jonathan nibbles on a carrot, Toby, a farm dog, asks him what kind of creature he is, and it is then that Jonathan discovers he is orange. He bites into a tomato and turns red, eats Swiss cheese and turns yellow, chews cabbage and turns green. Angry, he gulps down forget-me-nots from a flower bed and turns blue. Jonathan longs to be mousey-gray again, and searches for advice from the other farm animals. An unsuccessful attempt sparks Toby with a clever idea to remove the spell for good. Delicate watercolors accompany this entertaining tale of a mouse who leads an extremely polychromatic life. (5-8)