The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery [Hardcover]

Jean Van Leeuwen (Author), R.W. Alley (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Tired of their comfortable digs in Macy's department store, Marvin, Fats, and Raymond are three mice searching for adventure. Following a hair-raising ride in a shopping bag, they find themselves disembarking in front of the famous Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. There they discover many interesting things about the world of humans. Fats discovers that blobs of jam on canvas isn't food-it's art! But will his newfound artistic talent go to his head? Meanwhile, will Marvin be able to pull off the most daring skating stunt of the century? And will poor Raymond run out of brilliant ways to save his friends from sticky situations-or worse, the exterminator?

Amusing illustrations and humor-filled text will keep readers chuckling as they follow the inventive adventures of this plucky gang of city mice

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-After a long winter stuck inside the toy department at Macy's, Marvin needs to get out, so he enlists his friends Fats and Raymond to go exploring. The three mice catch a ride in a shopping bag full of stuffed rabbits and, to their delight, end up in Central Park. Marvin is captivated by Rollerbladers, but Raymond is far more interested in going to the Guggenheim, or as Marvin thinks of it, the Googlestein. Locked in the museum after closing, the trio make themselves at home in the kitchen of the Museum Caf‚. Marvin's desire to skate down the museum's ramp and Fats's newfound artistic endeavors keep them busy and keep readers entertained. Marvin, Fats, and Raymond are engaging characters and their adventures will appeal to young readers. The fast-paced plot is enjoyable, even though this novel is not a mystery in the classic sense. While the identity of the "mystery artist" is unknown to visitors at the Guggenheim, readers know exactly who created the collages. The small, amusing black-and-white drawings scattered throughout further enhance the reading experience.
Shara Alpern, The Free Library of Philadelphia
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-6. Marvin, Raymond, and Fats, the mice from Macy's toy department who made their debut in The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper (1975), are back again for a fifth adventure. This time they hitch a ride in a shopping bag and end up spending a week at New York City's Guggenheim Museum. Adventurous Marvin, who is enamored with the roller blades he sees in nearby Central Park, wants desperately to skate all the way down the spiral ramp of the museum. Inventive Raymond is happy to design blades and a helmet for Marvin, as well as to calculate his velocity and safety needs. But the story's true hero is the voracious Fats, who blossoms once his artistic talents are discovered and acknowledged. As always, Van Leeuwen's characters are appealing, both for their mouselike behaviors and their childlike personalities. Alley's black-and-white sketches add to the fun and help to clarify some of the story's details, particularly what common objects look like from a mouse's perspective. Strong local color is an added bonus. This will be a popular pick for reading aloud or alone; pair it with E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) for another New York City museum adventure. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dial (April 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803727658
• ISBN-13: 978-0803727656
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #785,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Teacher's Review, October 11, 2005

By 

J. Peck "jnpeck" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery (Hardcover)

I hate giving away plot in these reviews, so I will just say that this is a well-written book and that it is a fun book to read. It is about mice living in a human world that is huge in their perspective.

3.0 out of 5 stars My review on The great Googlestein Museum Mystery, January 22, 2012

By 

mark t rowsey - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery (Hardcover)

First off the people at booklist are idiots. Marvin, Raymond
and Fats made their debut in The Great Cheese Conspiracy in
1969 7 years before The Great Christmas Kidnaping caper was
released in 1975.

I have read book 1, 2 and 5.
I never new that books 3 and
4 existed because it does not have a book list and
because they dont title it as a series or even give them
a book number to make matters even worse I'm reading the
book and all of a sudden it makes refrences to an adventure
of theirs i never knew existed. If they had added the afore
mentioned book list it would have saved the reader a great
deal of confusion and questioning about the authors memory
and sanity.

So there i am reading this entirely enjoyable book when it
starts making refrences to their previous adventure that i
never heard of. so what happens i'm forced to jump online
and google jean van leeuwen to find out that this isn't book
3 like i thought but book 5.
How is a reader supposed to avoid looking like an idiot
if they don't state the obvious.
So for you folks interested in this "series" here is the book
list in order:

The Great Cheese Conspiracy (1969)
The Great Christmas Kidnaping Caper (1975)
The Great Rescue Operation (1981)
The Great Summer Camp Catastrophe (1992)
The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery (2003)

So in ending i have to say i give this book 3 stars
instead of its deserving 5 stars because the editors
and publishers and authors saw fit to confuse the reader
by not adding a book list and then making refrences to a
book that it is possible the reader may or may not have read due to the books being released so far apart from each other and I'm pretty sure this dumb move on their part probably cost them money and from having a series of best sellers.
i mean if i bought this book and never read the others and it doesn't say there are other ones will any one go out and buy them? Of course not cause according to this book they others don't exist that is a very simple minded and idiotic marketing strategy.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery, January 11, 2012

By 

MarySue Gulick - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery (Hardcover)

Book review of The Great Googlestein Museum Mystery by Jean Van Leeuwen
This review is by my 3rd grade student, Boone.

This fiction book is about three mice who live in the toy department of Macy's. Their names are Marvin, Raymond, and Fats. One day, Marvin leads the other two mice outside in a daring expedition. There, they find the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum. While Raymond studies modern art, Marvin daydreams about how wonderful it would be to skate all the way down the spiral ramp. Can he do it? Venture in to this novel to find out.