Meet Mrs. Eleanor Marlowe, a young widow who lives in an apartment by herself -- not counting the extended family of mice who secretly live with her. Harboring mice is a very serious offense in Cat City. Why would a mild-mannered widow run such a risk? The neighbors wonder why Mrs. Marlowe never invites anyone over for catnip tea. Her secret little friends are beginning to wonder about their host, too. So fine is the cheese she serves that some of Mrs. Marlowe's mice wonder if she's fattening them up for the kill. One day, officers from the Department of Catland Security show up at Mrs. Marlowe's door, demanding to search the premises. Can this crafty feline outwit the police and save her mice from certain doom? Is Mrs. Marlowe the mouse-sympathizer she appears to be? Or is she really a mouse-hungry monster stocking her larder with fresh mice?
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A sophisticated social satire ... Just scary enough to entice an intrepid young reader, this book operates on several levels at once. Frank Asch is a skilled writer ...
About the Author
Frank Asch is the author and illustrator of more than 70 books for children. His picture books with Kids Can Press include Ziggy Piggy and the Three Little Pigs and Mr. Maxwell's Mouse (illustrated by his son, Devin Asch). Frank lives in Middletown Springs, Vermont.
Devin Asch is an illustrator and photojournalist. He divides his time between LA and Hawaii.
Devin Asch is an illustrator and photojournalist. He divides his time between LA and Hawaii.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
4 1/2* Watching the Detectives,
This review is from: Mrs. Marlowe's Mice (Hardcover)
This follow-up to "Mr. Maxwell's Mouse" isn't as darkly witty; it's geared towards a younger, more innocent audience. As a result, it's not as surprising or satiric as the former. The surprises are more predictable, and there are some chances not taken.
However, what's remarkable about `Mrs. Marlowe's Mice" is how it creates a complete society, with unmistakable social and political undertones that capture the neo-paranoia of new millennium America. Whereas Maxwell focused on social/class "relations" at the dinner table, Marlowe takes an Orwellian view of society at large. Lest this semi-intellectual analysis put you off from the book, let me assure you that Marlowe is a delightful book for toddlers and young grade-schoolers; they will reduce the political shadings to the familiar story of good guys versus bad guys, or in this case, good cats vs. bad. Let's get to that story now--the one that your kids will enjoy. Mrs. Marlowe, a respected feline librarian lives in a community where Department of Catland Security keeps a close watch for mice and those cats who would harbor them. Mrs. Marlowe is a She's already suspected by nosy neighbor Mrs. Godfrey; after all, Eleanor Marlowe never invites her over for tea. "It almost feels like you're hiding .g something in there!" Mrs. Godfrey has no idea how right she is, for Mrs. Marlowe is hiding a whole extended mouse family! They scurry out of drawers and cupboards when she comes home, often with something good to eat--like cheese! The Asch's draw a slightly ambivalent relationship here: Mrs. Marlowe thoughtfully slices the cheese for the mice, but that very large knife looms large in the mouse mind: "If I didn't know better, I'd say Mrs. Marlow was fattening us up for the kill." "'Oh, what a horrid thing to say, Albert, squeaked Aunt Gerty...'" No sooner does Grandpa Paul note that Mrs. Marlowe's harboring of the mice is "at great risk to her own welfare!" than two Catland Security watch cats come pounding on Marlowe's door: Lieutenant Manx and his comedic foil, Sergeant Baker. The Asches play Manx's hard-boiled but ultimately incompetent detective persona to the hilt, like a parody of 1940's detective movies. He "snaps" at Mrs. Marlowe, lectures Baxter on police procedure (funny, because his observations are only too obvious for the human reader), and, above all, maintains his macho. When Mrs. Marlowe offers Manx some hors d'ouevres {"would you gentlecats care for one"), Sergeant Baxter (rather like Watson in the Basil Rathbone Holmes' movies), eagerly replies, "Don't mind if I do." No dice: "'This isn't a party, Baxter', hissed Lieutenant Manx. `Put that down...'" Unfortunately, one of the youngest (and cutest) of the hiding mice slips, and Manx finds him. Am uncertain fate awaits him and his family, until the quick thinking Marlowe pretends it's just a single stray mouse, and shows her disdain and good citizenship by apparently eating him! When the disappointed Manx and Baxter leave, Mrs. Marlowe shows the horrified family that she only pretended to eat the youngster, and he proclaims himself safe and sound, if just a little wet! That denouement comes a little too quickly, and the conclusion--with the heroic Mrs. Marlowe nodding off to sleep--is a bit flat, but the Aschs' book has exciting moments for a young audience, and some sly winks at adult readers. Although the Aschs might have more cleverly shown the mice hiding from the detectives, the pictures complement the book's overall tone and theme. The computer-generated graphics look a bit like tinted photographs, and the composition, sequence, and varied perspectives give the book's a cinematic quality. The pictures also have an oddly appealing--and fitting--mixture of realism and surrealism, one appropriate to the book's creative use of pure fantasy and reality-based metaphor. Conceptually and visually, this is a very creative and topical book, with the best writing centered on Mrs. Marlowe's rebellious outwitting of the brown-shirted Detective Manx.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maus lite?,
By
This review is from: Mrs. Marlowe's Mice (Hardcover)
I used to think that employing a computer to handle all your illustrating needs in a picture book was a risky proposition. Then we entered into 2007 and suddenly there were books like Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug and The Wizard using computers in radically different ways. Finally I got a glimpse of "Mrs. Marlowe's Mice", and now I think that it is safe to say that I've been won over to this style of artistic expression. In a sense, this particular book is a companion to the equally bizarre Mr. Maxwell's Mouse, put out by the same author and illustrator. Of the two, however, I may have to admit that I prefer this latest title. For cat lovers (and mice lovers alike) there's little to compare to the sweet madness that is the world of Frank and Devin Asch.
To the casual observer Mrs. Marlowe is just your average librarian widow. But to those who know her, and know her well, she's a very dangerous person: a mouse-keeper. Mouse-keeping is strictly forbidden, but within her home Mrs. Marlowe oversees a large number of happy well-fed rodentia. Of course, there's always the suspicion in the back of the minds of the mice that perhaps Mrs. Marlowe is just fattening them up for the kill, but the real test comes the day when her home is inspected by two policecats from Catland Security. Though she's adept at keeping the authorities at bay, when little Billy falls from his hiding space what happens next nobody expects. When I was a kid one of my favorite sequences in the Monty Python film And Now For Something Completely Different was the animated section that showed a huge rampaging cat attacking a town. It was basically a photograph of a real cat animated in bizarre ways and somehow, that imagine kept popping into my head as I read this book. I mean, the way that the cats are portrayed in the Asch titles is doggone weird, you have to admit. It's not many steps from the cats here to William Wegman's human-handed dogs. I had a bit of a time getting over Mrs. Marlowe's furry palms, but you can't imagine how much I appreciated that Mr. Asch the younger didn't slap a head of hair on her or something. He did give her eyelashes (the international unspoken symbol indicating that an animal is a girl) but aside from that she looks much like a very real kitty cat. I was fond of just how attractive Mrs. Marlowe was too. She practically sashays across the room when distracting the police officers away from her illegal mousie brood. Her clothing is relatively conservative (we are talking about a librarian here) but she has just the loveliest way of reclining casually against a chair. It's amazing the menfolk can look anywhere else. The art in this book is really quite clever too. On the street outside Mrs. Marlowe's home everything is brown and colorless. Even her normally deep green eyes take on a sepia hue before entering into her home. The little details are fun to find as well. Kids with sharp eyes will spot the cat across the street that ends up reporting Mrs. Marlowe and her hideaways. It's also fun to locate where the various mice are peeking out as the two policecats go through the young widow's home. I love how you never really know whose side Mrs. Marlowe is on until the end of the book. With the multiple shots of the cat wielding a very sharp knife above a block of cheese, to say nothing of the cover, the author and illustrator work to constantly keep you guessing about Mrs. Marlowe's intentions towards her "guests". There's a very palpable sense of Mrs. Marlowe living within a police state too. The endpapers of this book show the shadows of two cats over a city map. Below them, little flags portraying the heads of deceased mice dot the landscape, indicating where other mouse-keepers have been caught. Devin Asch is in danger of showing his hand a little too broadly when you spot the number on the Lieutenant's badge from Catland Security, but I suspect that this is a detail that most people usually miss. By and large there isn't a single identifiable moment in history tied into this story of a brave woman hiding an oppressed group from an unjust government. It's a charming little piece and one that I'm sure isn't going to catch the public's eye as quickly as it deserves to. Yet when it comes to fun stories presented in wholly original ways, Frank and Devin Asch have the competition beat. A great book that contains more than initially meets the eye.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great story telling experience!,
By Karen "Karen" (Matthews, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs. Marlowe's Mice (Hardcover)
After reading the book myself, I shared the story with two first grade classes and held them spellbound with the story. The illustrations are phenomenal and the 6-7 year olds loved every minute of the story. When it was over, they wanted to hear more from this author. All of Frank Asch's stories are spellbinding, and hold children's interest all the way through.
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