Mouse Magic - Hardcover

Walsh, Ellen Stoll

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152003266 ISBN 13: 9780152003265

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 2000

Synopsis

Kit the mouse and the Wizard experiment with colors, finding that some colors vibrate when placed next to each other, in the sequel to Mouse Paint which includes a color wheel and explanations of complementary colors.

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Stoll Walsh has created many endearing-and enduring-books for children. She lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1-The creator of Mouse Count (1991) and Mouse Paint (1989, both Harcourt) brings her trademark style to illustrate how combinations of complementary colors can create optical illusions. Wizard insists that his mouse friend Kit's favorite "nice, ordinary, everyday colors" are magic. He mixes them to make jumping and "quivering" patterns. He claims that only he can make the colors move and that it is not "mouse magic." But while Wizard naps, Kit experiments and finds that the magic is in the colors, not the wizard. Unfortunately, the story is not as bright as the colors it features. The text is only a vehicle for examining optical illusions, and there isn't enough action to hold the attention of young children. This same group may also have trouble seeing the visual tricks and understanding the "magic" behind them.
Carolyn Stacey, Jefferson County Public Library, Golden, CO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The creator of Mouse Paint and Mouse Count dishes up more concept fun in this picture book about complementary colors. Now that Kit, an androgynous mouse, has mastered primary and secondary colors, a wizard bird wants to teach Kit some color magic. The bird demonstrates that when specific colors--red and green, or blue and orange, for example--are paired in a design pattern, they appear to quiver or move. Young readers may recognize a similar kind of eye trickery from Magic Eye books and posters. An author's note further explains the theory, employing a color wheel. As always, Walsh's crisp-hued, cut-paper compositions seem to pop off the page. Kit's pudgy body and twinkling eyes and Wizard's mottled feathers imply an abundance of personality. Unfortunately, the text is a tad stiff. In her efforts to simplify a somewhat complicated idea, Walsh fails to establish the sharp storytelling rhythm of her best work. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The mice who first brought us primary colors in Mouse Paint have graduated to the next lesson in complementary colors. A mouse named Kit meets a wizard (in the form of a bird) who works magic, making colors quiver. When two colors opposite each other on the color wheel are paired togethergreen with red, orange with blue, purple with yellow, etc.the Wizard is able to work his magic. Kit does not trust in the Wizards magic, and decides to try the trick himself, until he learns that the magic is in the color, not the Wizard. Bright cut-paper collage creates both characters and patterns of optical-illusion-like colors that succeed in dancing on the page, playing tricks on the eye. Quizzical young children will be dazzled with the interactions of colors against the white page as they first experience primary, tertiary, and complementary colors. (Picture book. 4-7)-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152003266
• ISBN 13: 9780152003265
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32