Edna MillerRecensioni

Mousekin searches for a friend in the night forest.

Mousekin searches for a friend in the night forest.

The book runs a little long for a read aloud.
A mouse trying to find a home. It finds a discarded pumpkin. All the cutouts are really large but as the pumpkin ages it collapses and the openings are closed. Nice and snuggly

Spring had come to the forest, along with the rains, and Mousekins needed to find a new, drier home for himself. Exploring all of the possibilities, he encountered a massive white rabbit, whose thumping warned him when danger was near. Eventually, fleeing before an owl, he discovered a strange garden, complete with flowers previously unknown to him, and a basket full of eggs of an unusual color. When a child appeared to claim the basket, Mousekins fled, while his white rabbit friend followed after the child and her companion...

First published in 1986, Mousekin's Easter Basket was the thirteenth title in author/illustrator Edna Miller's fifteen-volume Mouskin series, begun in 1964 with Mousekin's Golden House, and concluded in 1992 with Mousekin's Lost Woodland. I had no idea, picking this title up, that it belonged to such an extensive series, but I am glad to discover it, as I found this entry charming. The narrative is simple, and the artwork lovely. Everything has a naturalistic feeling to it - real animals, out in the real world - even the white bunny, who, with his ribbons of various colors, clearly belongs to the children seen at the end of the story. There is a gentle, innocent quality to the story here, as Mousekin remains enmeshed in his wild, murine world, but briefly encounters the human one, through his visit to the garden. As mentioned, the illustrations are just lovely. Like Carol and Donald Carrick's A Rabbit for Easter, the last "Easter" picture-book I read, this really isn't an Easter story at all, so much as one which occurs at Eastertide. I would recommend it to picture-book readers who enjoy mouse stories. For my own part, I intend to track down other titles about Mouskins.

Rating 5 stars partly for the nostalgia factor, since I know I loved this book as a kid. (I still do. Enough that I sought out a used copy of it for my keeper shelf since it's now out of print.)

Adorable picture book about a mouse who makes his home inside a discarded jack-o-lantern. The art is a wonderful complement to the story here.

Ex libris Rebecca Schaffner

a fun book about the different aspects of a forest, all the animals and how they interact with other animals
1 book

He set to find another place where he could stay till spring with his mother.
Book came from Pierce College
age 2 and up

A very cute book with decent illustrations (the images are more in line with what an adult would appreciate, not a child - there's actually a psychology behind the different styles of children's illustrations, did you know that?). I still love this book, though.½

Patches, a mother tabby cat, and her two kittens lived in the woods outside. They drifted from home and hid throughout the brush, woodpiles, and trees exploring nature. This became dangerous at nighttime with foxes, weasels, hawks, and owls nearby. Patches always had to look out for her kittens to protect them. They ventured for a new home in during the days to keep themselves safe. One day Patches spotted a home lit with a single lamp, close to dusk. She and her kittens lived out in front of the house and would receive a saucer of milk every morning from out of the front door. The cats knew they were welcome, and knew this was their new home. They survived through storms by hiding inside the house under chairs and blankets, and were finally called to live there from the owner. They were safe from nature at last.½

Without ever making any references to Christianity, religious families will find several parallels to the Easter story in this beautiful book.½

One of my favorite books, Mousekin has to find a new home and sees all of the Christmas things, Falls asleep at the creche, Good for storytime if religious material allowed

reviewed