Amos & Boris

by William Steig

Amos the mouse and Boris the whale: a devoted pair of friends with nothing at all in common, except good hearts and a willingness to help their fellow mammal. They meet after Amos sets out to sea in his homemade boat, the Rodent, and soon finds himself in extreme need of rescue. Enter Boris. But there will come a day, long after Boris has gone back to a life of whaling about and Amos has gone back to his life of mousing around, when the tiny mouse must find a way to rescue the great whale.

The tender yet comical story of this friendship is recorded in text and pictures that are a model of rich simplicity. Here, with apparent ease and concealed virtuosity, Caldecott medalist William Steig brings two winning heroes to life.

Amos & Boris is a 1971 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, Notable Children's Book of the Year, and Outstanding Book of the Year.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Friendship, Fiction, Animals, Fantasy, Kids

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

William Steig was born in New York City in 1907. In a family where every member was involved in the arts, it was not surprising that Steig became an artist.

He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968, embarking on a new and very different career.

Steig's books reflect his conviction that children want the security of a devoted family and friends. When Sylvester, Farmer Palmer, Abel, Pearl, Gorky, Solomon, and Irene eventually get home, their families are all waiting, and beginning with Amos & Boris, friendship is celebrated in story after story.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely picture book about an unusual friendship and giving and receiving help. The illustrations are lovely, the plot is good, the language doesn't talk down to children and like all good stories I think this is enjoyable for any age. I was surprised how similar the later published The Snail and The Whale is to this story.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tonight both kids wanted to hear the story. Amos is a mouse and Boris is a whale. They make unlikely friends and yet each is perfectly suited to help the other out of a life threatening situation. I got teary-eyed reading this. It was very touching.

The art work almost looked like water colors and maybe it was. It fit in with the water theme perfectly. There were many blues and grays like the ocean.

I also loved the word choices. The kids repeated some of the beautiful phrases used in the story and he had some great vocabulary words in there also.

This was a joy to read and the kids enjoyed it too. They gave it 5 stars.

[Ronyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading William Steig’s works ever since I was little and now I have just recently read his most heartwarming book yet, “Amos and Boris.” “Amos and Boris” is a children’s book by William Steig which is about a small and adventurous mouse named Amos who finds a friend in a huge whale named Boris when Amos was lost at sea and Boris saves his life. “Amos and Boris” is truly a beautiful children’s book that will be an instant favorite among children for many years!

Oh my goodness! I have to catch my breath here! When I mentioned that this book is simply breathtaking, it really took my breath away! William Steig has certainly done an excellent job at both writing and illustrating this story about the importance of true friendship. What I loved the most about William Steig’s writing is his ability to use extremely advanced words but makes those advanced words flow beautifully with the story and also making the story sound so exotic. I also loved the theme of friendship in this book as Boris and Amos are truly inseparable friends as they would do anything to help each other out in their troubling situations and I loved how Amos and Boris kept on telling each other that they will never will forget each other, no matter how different they are from each other. William Steig’s illustrations are simply beautiful, especially of the images of Amos sailing out into the ocean and you can see the stars in the sky and a beautiful view of the blue ocean and the large grey whales sprouting water from their breathing holes. My favorite images in this book are of the ones where Amos is seen riding on Boris’s back as they truly look like the inseparable pair that the book beautifully promotes.

Parents need to know that this book might be a tad bit too long for smaller children to handle, so probably the best solution to this problem is if the parent reads one half of the book on the first day and then read the second half of the book the next day so that way, smaller children would be able to keep up an interest in the book.

All in all, “Amos and Boris” is a true classic that you should not put down and anyone who wants to learn about the true meaning of friendship can definitely check this book out! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the length of this book might bore smaller children.

I like to thank my Goodreads friend, Kathryn, for recommending me this book! It was worth reading!!!

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[Roya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that has been read to me countless times, I can proudly state that I no longer cry whenever I read this. Nowadays I simply wish that we all had friends like Amos and Boris.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I can’t believe this gem of a book has been available for nearly 40 years and I’m finding it (thanks to Goodreads’ friend Kathryn) only now. I just loved it.

This is the story of an adventurous mouse, and he gets into trouble on his ocean voyage and meets up with a whale. Amos the mouse and Boris the whale have a lovely friendship, including helping one another in each of their times of need. It’s a very sweet friendship story. Both mammals, one living on land and one living in the sea, each have a lot to share with one another, and they both have such kind hearts.

The illustrations are wonderful. I thought that every single one of the pictures inside was better than the cover illustration. The whale and the mouse are wonderfully depicted, as are the ocean waves, the boat, the animals at the end, the beach, and everything else.

This is a wonderful story for children of all ages, all types of read-aloud situations, and also fine for independent readers to read themselves.

Gift worthy. In fact, I wish I’d known about this one just recently when I bought a new baby gift.

It’s a very special book.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It's one of those that defies review, because I can't quite put into words what touched me so deeply about this. It's a tale of an unlikely friendship, between an adventuresome mouse and a whale who finds him when his little ship is wrecked. They learn from one another, and the friendship opens their eyes to things in the world they would never have noticed on their own. Others may not be so touched by the ineffable warmth and wisdom I felt in this tale, but for me it's a treasure.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published in 1971, William Steig's Amos & Boris, which offers a delightful oceanic remake of the classic Aesopic fable of The Lion and the Mouse, is as close to perfect as a picture-book can be, pairing an engaging story about an unlikely friendship between a mouse and a whale, with charming illustrations that are all the more evocative for their simplicity. The text is intelligent, and its author assumes that his readers, young though they may be, are likewise intelligent. Describing his murine hero's voyage of discovery on the wide ocean, Steig writes: "One night, in a phosphorescent sea, he marveled at the sight of some whales spouting luminous water; and later, lying on the deck of his boat gazing at the immense, starry sky, the tiny mouse Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all."

That thrilling sense of connection, to the world around, and to the very cosmos; that feeling of being akin to all life; is one that comes to us all, from time to time (or so I have always imagined), an epiphanic experience made more powerful by the fact that it often remains inchoate - sensed, felt, but not fully conceptualized or expressed. That Steig so effortlessly evokes that kind of experience, using a sophisticated vocabulary that some might deem too advanced for picture-book fare, before blithely moving on with his narrative, makes for a brilliant storytelling episode - one of many in this little masterpiece of the genre! Poignant, without ever descending into any kind of overt emotional manipulation or tricksiness; heart-warming, though utterly lacking in sentimentality; and deeply satisfying, though the conclusion of the story is left somewhat open-ended, Amos & Boris is a superb picture-book, one I am very sorry not to have discovered earlier in life. I suspect I would have read it again and again, as a girl...

[Negin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of our favorite books ever. I cried pretty much every time I read this to to my children. Beautiful story.

[Tyler McGaughey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really sweet little book from William Steig, one of the best authors of children's literature ever. His prose is full of little gems of language (my favorite is when he describes a beached whale as being "breaded with sand"); this is perhaps the only picture book to use the word "phosphorescent." His illustrations stick with a simple color palette made up mostly of blue, orange, and brown, nothing showy but tremendously effective, especially in some of the panoramic pictures. I don't even want to talk about the story, which swims along with the determined quality of a fable, not a single word out of place, only to destroy me every single time with those two final sentences.

Updated thoughts, October 10, 2013: I think about this book all the time, and upon much consideration I feel no hesitations in naming this as one of the very few Perfect Books out there.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't know until later, though maybe I read too much into it, that this was an allegory for a friendship I had (the friend being the one who gifted me that book in the first place). Its about adventure and taking risks and finding friends. Its silly and lovely and still makes me a bit weepy at the end.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very good. I loved part where Amos is enchanted by the beauty and mystery of the world: "One night, in a phosphorescent sea, he marveled at the sight of some whales spouting luminous water; and later, lying on the deck of his boat gazing at the immense, starry sky, the tiny mouse Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all." Amos is "[o]verwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything."

At one point, Amos contemplates death and heaven. Boris saves Amos's life, and Amos is able to save Boris's life too (a little deus ex machina / unrealistic, but it's a talking mouse to begin with, so...).

[Marta Cava]

William Steig sent el millor un cop més!!!

[Maria Gajas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vaig veure que la Marta Cava el recomanava i ens el va cagar el tió.
Ahir en vam fer lectura en veu alta i QUIN ENCERT! Una història d’aventures i amistat fantàstica!
Steig és el millor!

[buffydvs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh to be Amos laying on the back of a whale with the comfort and security of looking at the sky above me and the ocean below me. Read this one to the roomies!

[Simon Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Steig was enthusiastically recommended to me years ago by a relative, for my children, and we now have a number of his books. One of my favourites is Amos & Boris, where an industrious little mouse sets off on an intrepid voyage across the sea, with unexpected results.

The mouse (Amos) builds himself a boat, studies navigation, and then stocks it up with all kinds of useful provisions, including a compass, sextant, cheese, biscuits...and a needle and thread for mending torn sails! However, one night, while lying on the deck after a successful start to his voyage, he is so swept away by the beauty of the night sky and the majesty of the universe, that he rolls off the boat and into the sea.

Luckily, a whale (Boris), comes to his rescue, and in the long journey to shore they become close friends. They discover many things about one another, including the surprising revelation that they are both mammals. After a heartfelt parting, they expect never to see one another again, but years later, Boris happens to be washed ashore by a hurricane on the same beach where he left Amos. The mouse comes to his rescue, cleverly enlisting the help of some friendly elephants who luckily happen to be nearby, and they roll the whale back into the sea.

Steig's illustrations are beautifully crafted, and he does a wonderful job of conjuring up the feelings of the characters, whether it is the reflections of the mouse early in his voyage ("He was full of wonder, full of enterprise and full of love for life") or the whale's feelings at the touching final farewell at the end ("He looked back at Amos on the elephant's head. Tears were rolling down the great whale's cheeks.")

Amos & Boris functions on many levels. It includes some interesting references about life on the sea, it explores the nature of the two animals and it is also a heart-warming story about the meaning of friendship. It's quite funny as well!

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

What business do a whale and a mouse have becoming friends? None, some would say; yet Amos and Boris together somehow form one of the truly beautiful friendships in the recent history of literature. Their connection is one of symbiotic ponderance, in which they talk with each other about their mutually exclusive habitats and, linked together, see the majesty of the world around them through eyes that neither has on his own.

Amos, the mouse, meets Boris, the whale, under far less than ideal circumstances, the former having rolled off his boat in the middle of an exploratory sea voyage, and now languishing in the sea as his tiny body tires in the massive expanse of salt water. Boris surfaces beside Amos just when his strength has ebbed to near empty, and saves the mouse's life, and neither one will ever forget what comes about as a result of that happenstance. When Amos is able to unexpectedly return the favor to his friend many years later, the reunion between the old friends is truly something for the reader to cherish in his heart, and the eventual parting of the duo is bittersweetly touching to an extent that one just doesn't find in very many picture books. Then again, William Steig is the master.

Amos & Boris is memorable and compelling in every way, capturing the essence of unorthodox friendship and demonstrating why it can be so sweet. The language is uncommonly beautiful for a story of its brevity, and the characters are thoughtfully fashioned. I would recommend this small jewel for any sensitive and receptive reader.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful tale of friendship and karma. The two friends, Amos and Boris, meet by chance and form a friendship for a lifetime, even though Amos must live on land and Boris must live in the ocean. Another chance encounter strengthens the bonds of their friendship.

I picked this out because of my Dad and I love the fact that the story is as old as I am.

We have enjoyed other stories by William Steig - we loved Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and read it over and over. We also really enjoyed Brave Irene. We will certainly look for more stories by this author at our local library.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think one of my favorite children's books ever. The adventurous rat's boat sinks while he's sailing the world--he's saved by a whale and they spend time together and make friends while the whale takes him to shore on his back. They have a sad goodbye, but a few years later, the whale washes up on shore and the rat has the opportunity to save the whale's life. A great story about unlikely friendship!

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere on the good side of "meh."

This review was originally published at http://www.drttmk.com/books/amos-and-....

This is an odd story, but I suppose that's to be expected from the author of "The Amazing Bone" and "Sylvester's Magic Pebble." A mouse named Amos, who lives by the sea, decides to build a boat and go sailing in the ocean. It's unclear where he learns how to build a boat or sail, although he does seem (from the perspective of a layman such as myself) to take important things with him, such as "wood in case repairs should be necessary" and "a needle and thread for the mending of torn sails." Oddly, he doesn't seem to take any tools for fishing, though you would expect that to be a major source of food on the ocean. Maybe, since he's a mouse, he doesn't expect there to be many fish of the size he can eat. At any rate, he is some kind of natural-born boat-builder and sailor, and instead of practicing sailing near the shore for a while, he just immediately heads off into the middle of the ocean, where he gets so wrapped up in navel-gazing that he falls off the boat and into the ocean, never to see the boat again.

Luckily, this happens in the middle of a whale pod, and a whale named Boris comes by the next day and marvels at the unique animal in the middle of the ocean. Upon receiving Amos's explanation of his origins, Boris agrees to carry him home, fascinated to get to know such an unusual creature. It takes them a week to get home, during which Amos learns to eat plankton somehow (maybe since he's a mouse, they're big enough for him to see? But how would he get enough of them to eat?) and apparently only misses "fresh, unsalty water" instead of simply dying of thirst. They get to know each other, and Amos, upon reaching his home shore, promises Boris that if he can ever help him with anything, that he will. They part as friends.

Years later, Boris is a victim of a Hurricane and, in an unbelievable coincidence, ends up stranded on the exact beach where Amos lives. Amos promptly brings by "two goodhearted elephants" who roll Boris back into the ocean. And then they say goodbye again. The end.

There's definitely a parallel between this story and the fable of "The Lion and the Mouse" or "Androcles and the Lion", depending on the version you read, except that the whale apparently is a baleen whale (given the reference to plankton) and never actually endangers Amos's life. The larger animal saves the smaller one, and when the smaller one promises to repay the favor someday, the larger one scoffs. In this case, however, it's more of a good-natured scoffing. Amos doesn't need to promise to help Boris in the future in order to prevent Boris from eating him; he just does, out of the kindness of his heart. Both creatures are very kind-hearted, and their brief acquaintance but lasting friendship shows that they understand this in each other.

I'm not really sure what this book is trying to say. It's well-written, but as with the other Steig books I've read, most of what happens doesn't make much sense. How does Amos know how to build, and sail, a boat? Why doesn't he practice first? Why does Steig find it necessary to tell us all of the things that Amos brought with him on the boat if none of them ever get used, and the boat is never seen again? Why the scene, just after Boris rescues Amos, of Boris "[forgetting] for a moment that he had a passenger on his back and [sounding]" (i.e. diving), followed by his resurfacing, throwing Amos into the air to painfully hit the water again, at which point Amos, "Crazy with rage, ... scream[s] and punche[s] at Boris until he remember[s] he owe[s] his life to the whale." Why doesn't Boris just think to warn Amos ahead of time from the start? How does Amos avoid dying of thirst in his week without fresh water? Also, I take issue with Amos's phrase, "I'm a mouse, which is a mammal, the highest form of life." That's not how evolution works. And although it's a cute usage of language to describe Amos's life as "mousing around", describing Boris as "whaling about" makes it sound like he's killing other whales. That's a word, and it has a meaning. He can't just expect us to forget the meaning it has. Although, technically, "mousing" also means killing mice.

Also, the phrase "I don't have to tell you how these old friends felt at meeting again in this desparate situtation." Okay, technically, Mr. Steig, you don't. But you also didn't have to write this book. You're a writer, for Pete's sake. Write.

How come we don't get any explanation of where Amos manages to find elephants? Does Amos live in Africa, and they just happened to be passing by? Is there a nearby zoo that he broke them out of? Is Amos's world just populated by various animals and they're his neighbors? And after the elephants help Amos, does he now owe them a favor as well?

Maybe I'm just nitpicking. The book has a good message, decent artwork, and it's well-written. But for me to give a book the best rating, I want to come away going, "Yes! This is what I want people to read to my kids!" And I just didn't get that from this book. Sure, it's a decent book, but that just puts it in the company of the vast majority of books that range from mediocre to okay to decent. It's acceptable, but I'm not wowed by it. I'd give it like a 7/10, which in my rating system of bad-meh-good puts it as a "meh".

Message: Be kind and help others.

[Lesley Looper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the sweetest childen's stories ever! Two unlikely friends in Amos and Boris end up helping each other out, one in the ocean and the other on land. The story is really charming, and the illustrations are very cute. There's a nice lesson in this book for children, but it'll make adults smile too!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This classic picture book details the friendship of Amos, the mouse, and Boris, the whale. Amos is sailing the great blue ocean when he falls overboard and is rescued by the giant friendly whale, Boris. During their journey back to Amos' home, they become good friends - finding much to admire and respect about each other. They part with Amos promising to help Boris someday, too.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with the 3rd grade class I worked with this week. It's short, but definitely gets its message of love, friendship, and loyalty across in those few pages. I'll admit the ending got me a bit verklempt (choked with emotion). Great story to read aloud to grades K-4, but hopefully if you do, you won't be as emotional as me when reading the ending!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another classic -- the relationship of two unlikely mammals- a mouse and a whale, filled with adult vocabulary and fabulous illustrations telling the age of tale of how friends can help each other, regardless of size or outward appearance.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this delightful book to my godson and may have been more entertained than he was. The language is beautiful and the story wonderfully unique and touching. We both adored it. Read this to your children, asap.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet re-imagining of The Lion and the Mouse, but including a story of friendship (I get the impression that although the Lion and Mouse helped each other out and respected each other, they weren't really close pals).

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice story but quite wordy for reading aloud. I like that it doesn't shy away from using some bigger words, though.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerous book to read out loud, I get teary eyed just thinking about it

[Beyond the Pages with Eva K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was so beautifully done. I appreciated the simplicity and the artful word play. It was very moving.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

We just loved this book about friendship!

[Lyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for a while at my house, but I never really got to putting it on Goodreads. Amos and Boris is such a good book about friendship, and it touches my heart when I read it. Definitely a favorite.