Artifacts 'R' Awesome: Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure by Daniel Kirk

Late one night Sarah dropped in and asked, "What are you doing, Sam? Writing a new book?"

Sam said, "I'm just making some notes and sketching in my journal."

Sarah said, "You know, Sam, there's a place next door that has the kind of stuff you are looking for in these books. I think they call it ... a museum. We should go!"

And with Sarah's urging, Sam the Library Mouse and his best friend are off on another exploration. Sam is already the mouse master of library research, but Sarah is right--there is yet another place to gather information, a place which makes knowledge available without books--in exhibits of art and artifacts and animals and a myriad of things.

Still, Sam can't go exploring without his trusty journal, and over her protests he finally persuades Sarah to take along her own notebook:

"An explorer can't explore if she's writing in a journal! Explorers want adventure!" Sarah exclaimed.

But when faced with ancient statues and the skeleton of a prehistoric saber-toothed tiger, Egyptian mummies, and famous paintings (George Mousington Crossing the Delaware), Sarah finds that there is plenty for her to sketch in her journal as well. And after a adventurous but scary moment, Sarah learns that even cats can be artists as well, and the the cat artist and Sarah share their sketches with each other.

The two mouse explorers stay as long as they can in the museum, and when they return home to the library, they find their notebooks filled with notes and sketches to inspire further research.

Daniel Kirk's latest in this series, the just-published Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure (Abrams, 2012) continues the adventures of his popular bibliophile Sam the Library Mouse, in a sequel that is a great readaloud story before an up-and-coming museum field trip.

Other books in this series are Library Mouse, Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale, and Library Mouse: A World to Explore.