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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best unread books for children!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mouse and His Child, The (Paperback)
Russell Hoban has been cranking out some of the best literature for all age groups over the last 30 years, and yet during that time he has failed to acquire any recognition here in the states. Most of his books are continuously out of print despite their critical acclaim. The very first of these was The Mouse and his Child, and it lays the ground work for a lot of his other books. His masterpiece, Riddley Walker, is in many ways a creative rehash of many of the themes he presents here, some 15 years earlier. But Hoban should also be acknowledged here for being one of only a handful of authors who really expects something from his readers, and this is especially rare in children literature. Although it is easy to assume the Mouse and his Child is not really a childrens' story at all, this is only due to our low expectations. Hoban manages to address questions loaded with symbolism and philosophical implications. There is far too much going on in this book to list it all. As noted in other reviews, it is in places very dark and depressing, but also funny and deeply rewarding. Probably one of the best books for children written in this half of the century and criminally out of print (but what by Hoban is not except for the Francis books?) Also, find the movie if you can, as it actually holds true to the book marvelously.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An American classic with new illustrations,
By
This review is from: The Mouse and His Child (Hardcover)
When I first heard that Mouse and his Child was coming back into print I was happy but not elated. I already own a few copies I tend to loan to those who need to read slightly warped children literature, and I was also skeptical about the new illustrations. Although Mouse and his Child marked the last joint project between Russell and Lillian Hoban, the illustration matched the text perfectly, and one is stuck asking 'if it already works, why fix it?' With that, I put the book out of my mind and didn't think of it again until I happened upon it at a local book store. Given a chance to peruse through this book I was immediately convinced about the quality of this reissue. The new illustrations are as perfect as Lillian's (though with their own particular bent, eschewing both the comedic and dark aspects of the story) while the book is in all other respects put together beautifully. For those who have been dealing with beat-up paperback copies, your long years of wait are over. The cover cannot be truly appreciated from the small pic on Amazon's page (no slight to them, but you simply need to pick up the book and examine it to see how wonderful it is.) Once you remove the dust jacket, Small's beautiful sketch is found to take the WHOLE of the cover, wrapping around from back to front, while the inside cover shows a series of sketches depicting the constant rotations of the 'mouse and child' toy. I imagine that taste may very in regards to Small's drawings, but they are tasteful and do not depart from the spirit of the story. Its a beautifully crafted book.As to the story itself, I refered to this as an American classic, and it truly is, though perhaps a classic never appreciated in its place of origin. Mouse and his Child was widely hailed as such throughout Europe but seemed to scare kids in the US (perhaps because Mouse was not intended as a children story but rather got marketed as such.) It remains among the likes of other stories for all ages (its regularly compared to Tolkien, Richard Adams...personally I'd be more likely to compare it to a strange amalgamation of Kenneth Graham and Herman Melville) and addresses difficult issues while posessing a potentially terrifying plot (though black humor abounds). It is hard to think that while Twain's Huck Finn is claimed as one of the pillars of our national identity that we do not equally embrace Hoban's Mouse, for both are journey's through our cultural landscape, both dark and at times frightening, yet ultimately rewarding. Whether 'Mouse' will reach a new generation with this reprinting is hard to say, but it is still good to see this one back on the shelves.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If only there were a rating with 10 stars!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Mouse and His Child (Hardcover)
For this literature lover, The Mouse and Hiis Child is the best children's book and one of the best novels I have ever read.I first read The Mouse and His Child with my 4 year old son. We devoured it in one weekend, read it again one month later and yet again six months later. The book gets better every time. The story is action-packed with an almost endless array of fantastic characters, including what may be the most compelling villain in all of western literature (for me, only Roger Chillingsworth is comparable). The book is hilarious, frightening, and deeply affirming of the power of perseverance, love, and hope. (Sorry that the reviewers on this page who found the book too depressing weren't able to glean this, although it undeniably has very dark moments.) The ultimate triumph of the mouse father and child is to me so touching, so representative of our hopes for love and security through the struggle of daily life, that I find myself choking up or crying whenever I read the book's finale to my son. This book is probably not for all 4-year olds, but my son, who loves fully imagined, lengthy books, loved it, and he often pretends to be Manny Rat or asks me to walk with him the way the mouse father and child do. I'm happy to oblige, because the relationship between the father and son as they struggle through hardship, the child matures, and the father ages, is poignant in a way that few family romances in literature can compete with. Not bad for a book about wind-up toys and forest animals.
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