Customer Reviews

The Mouse and His Child

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Mouse and His Child is the most beautiful book ever written for children and for those who remember having been a child. It is a crime that it is out of print and the reprint should use his wife's illustrations because they are perfect. It is a book about hope and forgiveness that is a treasure to read together with your children. When we finished the book, my daughter with tears in her eyes asked me to read the last chapter again and with tears in my eyes I did. "Be Happy".

I stumbled across a worn paperback copy of this book in a used book store several years ago and enjoyed reading it immensely--as I had Hoban's challenging Ridley Walker. While children may like this book because the writing is direct and clear and the story exciting, I feel now as I did then--given the story's nuances--that Hoban had an adult audience in mind when he wrote it. Wish I could ask him.

It is almost a crime that it is no longer available. I read this book when I was a child and very soon afterwards, the movie was made. It was an inspiration.

The characters grew. They changed. They explored and discovered. They were toys in a vast universe beyond their comprehension and I felt there were layers of meaning to be uncovered.

I no longer have this book. I gave it to a nephew who at the time did not enjoy reading. Now he is going to college to become an English major. He has since passed the book on to another child.

In my own search to become self winding, the simple reminders from this book still occasionally wisp through my memories and alight my face with joy.

i saw this movie as a child and have been thinking about it scince. the beutiful story of the father mouse and his son is extreamly memorable. one particular phrase stayed with me,whats beyond the last visible dog. i wish that i could once again experiance this masterpiece.

When our daughter was only 5, a college professor friend strongly recommended this book. Now that we've just re-read it after 16 years, I'm shocked that our daughter enjoyed it so much. It's intensely funny, heart-warming, and almost recklessly violent. In the space of two pages, a couple of weasels manage to wipe out a whole army of little furry critters, then get eaten themselves by an owl. It has the violence of a Roald Dahl book, but with no relishing of the violence--Hoban is more realistic.

It's the story of a mechanical wind-up mouse and his child, bound together so that they always face each other, as they become fugitives and face terrors, courage, and redemption. There's death, treachery, and even a most touching about-face from a wicked character any other author would consign to permanent villainhood.

Although sometimes billed as a children's book because it deals with toys and animals, it takes an adult--especially someone well-read in philosophy and literature--to fully appreciate this highly unsual book. Don't miss it!

This was an intelligent book, but it might not be best for small children

I first became acquainted with this story when my husband and I saw it transformed into a movie in 1980. As a book, it is rare jewel of humanity expressed through the philosophies of the animal and toy characters--something much deeper than Barney the Dinosaur or Captain Kangaroo. I highly recommend it.

I found this book by chance in the library of a public school for grades K-5. I'm not sure what kids would read it, but it is wonderful.

My daughter, who was then 10 years old, and I first found a battered old copy of this book at our library book sale. It had a "cute" cover and she thought she might like it so we bought it. Little did we know what a treasue lay between the worn covers of that book. We read it together through the Fall and both of us had our eyes wide, our hearts thumping and our wishes for "just a little more" keeping us up later and later. She and I both loved it...a somewhat rare experience when reading with a ten year old! Now she is 13 and we have been gathering up books once again for the same library book sale. When we found this book buried among the others we both gasped with delight. And now, in the middle of a heat wave in August, we are both up late again...rereading this beautiful story. If you can find a copy, get it. And then when you have finished reading it, tuck it away for a few years...you will want to read it again.If you can read it with a child, all the better.

Mechanical toys can not move by themselves--much less think, or have feelings and dreams, yet Hoban's father-son performing team prove more than mere wind-up toys. Seeking definition, direction and three-dimensional existence, the mouse child asks his father what they are. The patient father replies that he does not know either, but advises him to wait and see. Not a satisfactory answer for an eager youth, who first notices the world (a doll house and a plush elephant) in a toyshop.

Stoic advice for two wind-ups who are very close--indeed they are permamently joined at arms' length, so that they can perform an amusing, circular dance, until they run down. But when they break the Rules of Clockwork, they themselves are broken by careless children and trashed. That is really just the beginning of their sylvan and aquatic odyssey in the callous world outside the protective toyshop and Christmas home.

The mouse child has a dream: a real home and family, while his gentle father just wants to protect his beloved son. They will be victimized by various animal riffraff. They will encounter actors, con artists, militia, philosophers and brilliant engineers. Oh yes, there is a ubiquitous tramp who restarts the inertia of Motion, like a parenthesis at the beginning, and considers causing the Inertia of Rest at the end.

There is humor, pathos, surprise twists of fate, noble dreams, and crushing defeats as the mouse duo labors in slow motion through their inexorable destiny. But do they have the right to choose that Destiny or must they accept whatyoung the world decides? Are they meant to cower in terror all their lives, to depend on others to keep them activiated, or to slave for Manny rat, the king of the dump? How will these long-suffering beings (for they ceased to be toys long ago) achieve the dual freedoms of perpetual movement AND self-determination? Do toys (or whatever they have become)deserve the right to pursue happiness? Not really meant for teenagers, this thoughtful yet amus! ing book will both charm and entertain its readers.