The Mousery - Hardcover

Pomerantz, Charlotte

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152023046 ISBN 13: 9780152023041

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2000

Synopsis

Grumpy Sliver and Slice don't like visitors. They are perfectly content, alone, in their dreary Mousery . . . until four shivering mousekins appear at the door. Sliver and Slice agree to let them in from the snowy cold for just one night. But after a dose of warm fires and lullabies, will they really send the adorable mousekins away?
Award-winning author Charlotte Pomerantz has created a heartwarming story about two mice who learn that sharing makes things twice as nice.

About this title

About the Author

Charlotte Pomerantz is the author of more than thirty children's books and has received high praise and honors, including the Christopher Award. She lives in New York City.

Kurt Cyrus has illustrated several popular picture books. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.

From Publishers Weekly

Two grouchy mice named Sliver and Slice chase away neighbors and strangers alike from their "mousery" (the trunk of an abandoned car). But during a brutal winter storm they relent long enough to admit four tiny "mousekins." The mousekins immediately transform the mousery by their exuberant presence, causing Sliver and Slice to rethink their isolationist policy. Pomerantz's (Mangaboom) uneven story line switches from Sliver and Slice's viewpoint to that of the mousekins and back, and it is unclear what exactly motivates the change in the older mice: the mousekins' obvious need, their excellent behavior or the memories they evoke. With the exception of a lullaby crooned by one of the mousekins (and which Sliver and Slice remember their grandmother singing), the rhymes grow tiresome: "In the morning they woke./ It was Sliver who spoke,/ 'Slice, do you think we've been wrong;/ They don't fidget or fuss,/ and they've been good to us./ I declare they do seem to belong.'" Cyrus's (Tangle Town) inventive illustrations detail the transformation of the dingy abode, plastered with crumbling old newspapers, into a cheerful, airy home with bright, comic-strip wallpaper. His depictions of the mice are imaginative, and his beautiful geometric snowflakes give the story an arresting focal point. But the rehabilitation of Sliver and Slice makes for a syrupy endingAthey are more fun at the beginning. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0152023046
• ISBN 13: 9780152023041
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Cyrus Kurt