Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban


The Mouse and His Child is a strange, lovely little book. It is rightly labeled “young adult literature” for its occasional dark themes and moments of gritty action. The story centers around two wind-up toys, a tin mouse and his son and their pursuit to become “self-winding”. Along the way they make many important discoveries about life and love and happiness. It’s a story about hope in despair and the courage to make dreams come true. In short, it is a very adult fairy tale. And I was charmed by it. One of the reviewers at Amazon called this “One of the best unread books for children”. He’s right.

4 comments:

Cathy said...

Thanks for this, Hope!

Cathy (in Chicago)

Jenny said...

This always looked a bit sad to me, but it was my sister's favorite book when she was a kid. I've never read it. I guess I should!

Janet said...

Hmm... Sounds interesting! I've never heard of this one, but I know Russell Hoban has a much longer booklist than many of us are aware of.

I'm going to see if our library has this.

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

This sounds intriguing!