The Mouse and His Child [Hardcover]

Russell Hoban (Author), David Small (Illustrator), David Small (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years | Lexile Measure: 970L (What's this?)

A reissue of the beloved classic, with stunning new pictures.

Russell Hoban is probably best known and loved for his charming series of books about Frances the Badger. However, in 1967 he wrote a novel that many consider to be one of the great works of children's literature of the twentieth century, The Mouse and His Child.

The mouse and his child are wind-up toys forever joined at the hands. But when their mechanism breaks they are discarded, separated from the doll house where they lived and the toy elephant that the child calls "mother" (much to her chagrin). And so begins a suspenseful journey that is heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and ultimately joyful as the mice seek what seems at first to be impossible: independence (self-winding) and the way back home.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like so many exceptional children's books, Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child clearly wasn't intended only for kid consumption. It certainly qualifies as a fantastic story for children: the characters are entertaining and memorable, the images powerful, the pacing tight, and the message unique and lasting. But this sweet, melancholy fable about a wind-up pair of tin mice--a dancing father and son joined at the hands--explores so many different themes of hope, perseverance, transformation, and the nature of existence (while still managing to be quite funny at times) that it's the sort of book that demands to be kept around for a lifetime of rereading.

The father and son's redemptive quest to become "self-winding" takes them through all sorts of trials, from the toy store to the dump to the swamp and back again, and all along the way the pair runs afoul of Hoban's well-realized and often menacing menagerie of characters, including the slave-driver Manny Rat, the distracted thinker Muskrat, and Crow and Mrs. Crow and their Caws of Art Experimental Theatre Group. (These last provide some of the best scenes in the book, getting a surprising amount of philosophical meat out of a play called The Last Visible Dog: "What doesn't it mean! There's no end to it--it just goes on and on until it means anything and everything, depending on who you are and what your last visible dog is.")

If you're only familiar with Russell Hoban from his Frances books (Bread and Jam for Frances), this gripping, sometimes disturbing, occasionally even violent novel might come as something of a surprise. But if you've read any of Hoban's later work, like Pilgermann or The Moment Under the Moment, then you know what this sophisticated and extraordinarily graceful writer is capable of, and why The Mouse and His Child deserves praise as one of the more profound children's works ever written. (Ages 9 to adult) --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

Since its publication in 1967, book lovers have lauded Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child. Now 2001 Caldecott Medalist David Small's haunting charcoal-and-ink illustrations energize and elevate this moving tale of two toy mice that come to life.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439098262
• ISBN-13: 978-0439098267
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best unread books for children! March 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format: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.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If only there were a rating with 10 stars! October 29, 2001

By A Customer

Format: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.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An American classic with new illustrations September 16, 2001

By C. Moon VINE™ VOICE

Format: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.