Mouse, Look Out!

Young children can join in a thrilling game of chase as a little mouse forages for food and a warm place to sleep while a wily black cat quietly stalks the mouse and a mysterious beast waits in the shadows.

PreSchool-Grade 2-As a little mouse scurries through an abandoned house, it is stalked by a cat at every turn. In each picture, children see a shadow or a portion of the predator as it gets closer to its prey. Then the feline bounds into the room where the mouse is nesting. Just as the hunter is ready to pounce, a dog enters the scene and chases it away. Beautiful artwork with some double-page spreads show a spooky English cottage filled with interesting junk. Young audiences will never tire of finding the cat in each picture and joining in the refrain, "MOUSE, LOOK OUT!/THERE'S A CAT ABOUT." The rhyming text builds just enough suspense, then gives way to relief when the dog appears. The paintings and story are similar to Ruth Brown's A Dark Dark Tale (Dial, 1981) but the ending is more reassuring. Children who enjoyed finding the kitty in Maria Polushkin's Who Said Meow? (Bradbury, 1988) or who delighted in the suspense of Robert Kraus's Whose Mouse Are You? (Macmillan, 1970) will love this appealing picture book.
Marlene Gawron, Orange County Library, Orlando, FL
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Readers follow a mouse fleeing a stalking cat through an abandoned house in this British team's taut tale. Full-bleed spreads convey Burgin's playfully eerie scenes, first from outside the house, a partly collapsed, overgrown structure darkening with the sunset and surrounded by a spiked fence with a foreboding sign ("Danger Keep Out"). Waite's text strikes just the right chord between haunting and humorous: "And tucked among the cracks of the ivy-covered wall, a little mouse was peeping," it begins. As the shadow of a black cat approaches, a gray-brown mouse digs its way frantically into the crevices of the house; each time the cat is about to pounce, his prey dashes just of reach, scuttling inside an abandoned shoe or taking cover between the bristles of a straw broom, as the refrain exclaims in capital letters: "Mouse, look out! There's a cat about!" Burgin never lets the stalking get too scary, skillfully balancing cobwebs and swirling dead leaves with plenty of light and familiar domestic objects, such as a beribboned straw hat and dusty teddy bear. The tension shows in the gripping of the mouse's claws as it peers at its own reflection in a copper kettle and in the ominous eyes of an owl that reappear in the shadows of each spread. The layers of one watching the other, reader, owl and cat, heighten the suspense, and the surprise ending, as the animals leap through the grass bathed in light, delivers a sigh of relief. Ages 5-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Newcomer Waite offers a tale of mild suspense. A mouse scampers and scurries through an abandoned house, where a mournful wind is blowing, heightening the drama. Unbeknownst to the mouse, a cat is following, and moving in. Every stanza - ``And up the giant steps,/with scrabbling and scratching,/a little mouse was struggling./Then slinking up behind,/a shadow came lunging'' - is followed by a refrain: ``MOUSE, LOOK OUT!/THERE'S A CAT ABOUT'' that ought to inspire hearty choruses at story hour. In the end, a dog that materializes to thwart the cat. Waite's story is sweet but negligible; what will keep readers flipping the pages is Burgin's illustrated tour of the deserted house - the artwork naturalistic and detailed - and the modestly menacing cat lurking in the shadows, all stealth and determination. (Picture book. 5-7) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 4^-6. Looking for a bite to eat and shelter on a breezy autumn day, a mouse has the good fortune to come upon an old, abandoned house. Not all his luck is good, however, as he's being silently stalked by a black cat with piercing yellow eyes. Although the little creature remains blissfully ignorant, children following the story are keenly aware of what's really going on, thanks to the nicely rendered lifelike illustrations and a rhyming text, punctuated by the refrain, "MOUSE, LOOK OUT! THERE'S A CAT ABOUT." Youngsters will enjoy being in on the secret prowl and root for the mouse to get away. And in a surprising twist, it does: it seems there's also a dog about. Prereaders can easily grasp the plot just by looking at the wonderfully detailed pictures, but this entertaining, interactive story begs to be read aloud. Lauren Peterson