A Mouse's Reality Check (I'm Sick of It!)

Dreaming of becoming a huge elephant, a tiny gray mouse discovers that it is better to be a small, quick mouse when a hungry cat attacks.

PreS. Two board books that are not suitable for the target audience of this format?infants and toddlers. The texts, while minimal enough to fit their attention spans, are not appropriate for either storytime or one-on-one sharing. A Fishy Melodrama begins with the following lines: "I'm sick of being a cute little goldfish! I want to be a big tough shark...so I can scare all the children! RrrrrAaAah!" The last two lines conclude that it is all right just to be a goldfish. Similarly, in A Mouse's Reality Check, a tiny mouse wishes that he were an enormous elephant. When the rodent is chased by a cat, he is able to hide in his hole and finds that it is better to be small. This type of message is for older children and is beyond the grasp of the typical board-book audience. The illustrations miss the mark as well. Both covers feature cutout shapes showing a scowling fish or mouse against a stark black background. The primitive-looking pictures seem too mature for young audiences. They feature frowning, grumpy looking animals. Better board books abound. Stick with titles by Jan Ormerod or Shirley Hughes for this audience.?Lisa Marie Gangemi, Sousa Elementary School, Port Washington, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An artful board-book parable. A small gray mouse, tired of being small, wants to be as enormous, massive, and monstrous as an elephant. He gets a reality check when the cat appears--and being small enough to squeeze through the mouse hole seems a very happy fate indeed. Bourgeau's illustrations are simultaneously simple and sophisticated, immediately accessible and accompanied by a scratchy, eccentric typeface, deployed to good effect, in various sizes and positions on the page. A charming identity crisis, gratifyingly played out; another temporary malcontent can be found in I'm Sick of It: A Fishy Melodrama (0-8431-7925-2). (Board book. 4-6) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.