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.

Mighty Mouse: Mouse and Lion by Rand Burkhert

ONE DAY MOUSE, HURRYING HOME, LOST HIS WAY ON A ROCKY LEDGE.

HE WAS IN SUCH A RUSH HE SCRAMBLED RIGHT OVER A TAWNY BOULDER THAT LAY IN HIS PATH.

WELL, THAT BOULDER ROLLED OVER AND CAUGHT HIM BY THE TAIL.

IT WAS KING LION, IN A BAD HUMOR.

Only a wise mouse with a glib tongue can talk himself out of such a situation, but Aesop's fabled mouse has the cause and the wit to make King Lion a proposition he hopes he can't refuse.

"PLEASE LET ME GO," MOUSE BEGGED. "SIRE, YOU MIGHT NEED ME ONE DAY--IN A PINCH."

King Lion laughs and laughs at the preposterous premise that so small a mouse could help one so great and powerful as he, but the joke improves his bad humor and he agrees to the deal.

And as veteran readers know and novice readers will soon find out, it was the best deal of his life, for when he is captured in the huntsman's trap, it is only little Mouse, with his stealth and sharp teeth who can nibble through the net in which Lion is snared.

"YOU ARE FREE, LION!"

One good deed deserves another and turnabout is fair play in son and mother Rand and Nancy Ekholm Burkert's latest collaboration on this lovely retelling of the famous fable, Mouse & Lion (Scholastic, 2011). Caldecott artist Nancy Burkert, celebrated for many exquisitely illustrated pictures books such as her award-winning Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs, (Sunburst Book) here turns her prodigious talents to a portrayal of the world of Mouse and Lion with nature drawings that would make John James Audubon proud. Read this one along with Jerry Pinkney's equally stunning but very differently illustrated Caldecott-winning The Lion & the Mouse for a storytime that gives the ancient Aesop a whole new life.

Mouse in the Manger: Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

In a big house lived a wee mouse named Mortimer. He dwelled in a dark hole under the stairs.

Nobody ever noticed little Mortimer, and Mortimer liked it that way. But he didn't like his hole.

"Too cold. Too cramped. Too creepy," squeaked Mortimer.

So Mort sets forth to find more suitable accommodations for himself. Dodging mom and two kids by house-hunting at night, the little mouse spies just what he's looking for--a little house just his size on a table in the living room.

Bouncing up the branches of a conveniently placed Christmas tree, Mortimer is delighted with his find.

"Perfect! Not cold. Not cramped. Not creepy. COZY!

But--who are you?" Mortimer had never seen people so small... or such strange animals, either!

Mortimer soon sees that the little people and animals in the creche are not real. Inside the little shelter he spots a tiny straw-filled manger just his size, "Out you go!" says the the little mouse as he sets about tugging and lugging and rolling the little statue of a sleeping baby and some grown-up figures out of the building. Soon Mortimer is curled up, sleeping warmly in his new bed.

But alas! Each day as Mort scurries around to find crumbs of cookies and fruitcake, the children of the house set up the statues back in Mortimer's new house. Night after night he is forced to tug the little people outside to make his bed in the tiny manger. "And stay out!" he commands them sternly.

Then one day Mortimer overhears the family gathered around the tree and creche, reading from a story in a big book, and the story he hears is wondrous.

"And there was no room for them in the inn," the big man read.

Then Mortimer heard about a baby. A baby who was born in a stable and had no real bed but slept in a wooden manger. A baby born to save the world!

"There was no room for you in the inn, but I know where there is room," Mortimer said.

That night Mortimer lovingly replaces all the figures in the creche, especially the smiling baby in the manger, happy to see that he looks warm and cozy there. Then he scurries back to his old home in the cold, cramped, and creepy hole under the stairs. As he curls up, he whispers a wish. "Jesus... perhaps you could bring me a home."

And the next night there is a new and wonderful little house in a special place on the table near the tree--a house, built of delicious-smelling gingerbread and trimmed with candy canes and marshmallows--warm and cozy and tasty--and just his size!

Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, who have given us the delightful picture books in the Bear Snores On series, have created a new character in their lovely Mortimer's Christmas Manger, a gentle story of the Christmas message seen from the viewpoint of the smallest creature in the house.

In A Dark, Dark House: Mouse, Look Out! by Judy Waite

The gate no one opened was rusted and old.

When the wind blew, it sometimes creaked and sighed.

And tucked amongst the cracks of the ivy-covered wall, a little mouse was peeping.

An abandoned English cottage, its twin chimneys overgrown with vines and its unpainted boards gray with time, beckons to a tiny, long-tailed mouse, who, ignorant of the tattered DANGER! KEEP OUT! sign, squeezes through a gnawed-out opening in the sturdy paneled door. Inside, autumn leaves have drifted over the dusty floors, and abandoned relics of former lives lie about--a straw garden hat, its tulle ribbon and flower still a soft but persistent pink, a broken china vase with delicate blue flowers, a curled and creased leather shoe with a hole in the toe, just right for a mouse to hide inside.

Mouse, look out!
There's a cat about!

But the mouse's long, curving tail gives him away, and his presence in the seemingly abandoned cottage is noted, as an almost hidden black cat follows the little mouse as he makes his way through the lower floor and struggles up the stairs to a bedroom above. Amid a jumble of cast-offs--clothing, a teddy bear, bedding--the mouse finds what he is apparently seeking, a tiny hole in the mattress where a little mouse can tuck in warmly for a long winter sleep.

But Mouse, look out!
There's a cat about!

Slinking behind him as he searches for a safe haven is the patient but determined cat, a black shadow which moves silently behind the mouse. As the mouse settles down, the cat begins her final stalk.

But wait! The preying cat is also being followed--by a large dog with a presumably very big bark.

Cat! Look out!
There's a dog about!

And as the back endpapers reveal, the stalker becomes the chased, as a long view from the cottage shows the cat fleeing through the autumn trees, the dog in hot pursuit.

Judy Waite's Mouse, Look Out! combines her stately language and measured rising tension with Norma Burgin's exquisite illustrations, at once both cozy and suspenseful. The mouse frisks about, taking in the empty kitchen and sniffing its left-behind implements. As the mouse reacts to his reflection in a still shiny copper teakettle, we see the cat watching for her moment, hidden except for her face, waiting carefully for the moment we fear is to come, as the two, unbeknownst to each other, make their way through the abandoned rooms.

Listening children will love spotting the cat as it peers out from hiding on every page and will soon be joining in on the repeated refrain "Mouse, look out! There's a cat about!" and will joy as the hunter-and-hunted tables are turned in the surprise ending. Published almost a decade ago in Britain, this book has been reissued in America just in time for our autumnal scary season. For the younger set, though, this tale of a deserted cottage, a venturesome mouse, and a foiled black cat is sure to delight at any time of year.

Opening Up: A Visitor for Bear by Bonnie Becker

No one ever came to Bear's House. It had always been that way, and Bear was quite sure he didn't like visitors. He even had a sign:

NO VISITORS ALLOWED.

Bonnie Becker's Bear in her new A Visitor for Bear is the poster child for solitary, set-in-their-ways old bachelor bears. Bear is tediously fond of his fusty daily routines, and on one cool autumn morning, as he happily contemplates his breakfast ritual, he is interrupted by the unwelcome sound of tap-tap-tapping at the door and a small, and gray and bright-eyed mouse outside. "Go away," Bear said, pointing to the sign.

Back in the kitchen, Bear resolutely gets with his program again.

He set out one cup and a spoon. But when he opened the cupboard to get one bowl, there was a mouse, small and gray and bright-eyed. "I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE!" said Bear.

"Perhaps we could have just a spot of tea!" ventures the mouse.

"OUT!" bellows Bear.

"Most sorry," said Mouse. "I will be going now."

Bear goes back to assembling his meal, but when he opens the bread drawer to get out one slice for his toast, there is Mouse, bright-eyed as usual. "Unbelievable," said Bear. "AWAY with you! VAMOOSE!" "Yes, thank you. Here I go!" responds Mouse agreeably.

Bear trudges around his cottage, locking the doors and windows. Then, certain that there will be no more visitations, he opens his fridge to get out one egg, only to find the mouse inside. "A crackling fire?" suggests the mouse politely. "Impossible, Intolerable, insufferable," Bear storms out. "Terribly sorry," Mouse apologizes. "Now you see me, now you don't."

Bear scurries around, boarding up windows, blocking the chimney, and even stoppering the bathtub drain. At last he returns to his woefully delayed breakfast, checking the cupboard, bread drawer, and fridge first. "Mousefree. Yes, indeed." Bear exults and at last lifts the lid to his teakettle.

And there was the mouse, small, and gray, and, well, you know the rest. Bear fell to the floor and wept.

"I give up. You win. I am undone."

"So sorry," said the mouse, "but perhaps if I could just have a bit of cheese and a cup of tea--and do you think we could unstop the chimney and have a nice fire?"

Some friendships, it seems, are just meant to be. As the two warm before the fire and sip their tea in amiable quiet, Bear realizes that he is enjoying the company. "The fire is nice," said Bear. After a bit he adds, "I can do a headstand." "Very impressive," says Mouse attentively.

His cup empty, Mouse keeps his part of the deal and prepares to be on his way. Surprised at himself, Bear pleads,

"Don't go! That sign is for salesmen, NOT FRIENDS. "One lump or two?"

"TWO," says Mouse.

And two it is from here on for this delightful odd couple. Kady MacDonald Denton's soft ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations gently but tellingly delineate these two diverse characters, as Bear's bulky body language subtly reveals his change of heart toward his unlikely new companion, and along with Becker's just-right text, A Visitor for Bear introduces a brand-new pair of memorable picture-book friends.