Mouse Shapes

by Ellen Stoll Walsh

What can you make with one oval, two circles, and eight triangles? Just ask three clever mice--who even find a funny way to trick a sneaky cat.

Ellen Stoll Walsh once again proves that she’s a master of concept books in this celebration of shapes, color, and innovation.

Genres: Picture Books, Mathematics, Childrens, Storytime, Animals, Art, Cats

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ellen is the daughter of Joseph Adolphus (a businessman) and Nell (Orum) Stoll; married David Albert Walsh (a professor), August 25, 1964; children: Benjamin Martin. She was educated at Maryland Institute of Art, B.F.A., 1964; attended University of Minnesota, 1966-69.
She lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

[Torrie Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great resource to use when teaching children shapes and their attributes. It also can teach children how to make things out of shape, like in the book they used a rectangle and triangle to make a tree.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about shapes and three little mice who are running away from a scary cat. Good for toddlers and preschoolers.

The cut out illustrations are fun too, and could be used as inspiration for kids’ art projects.

[drowningmermaid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gets away from the "fable" aspect of this series by giving all the mice names. Not my favorite of the series-- less about the prey outwitting the predator and more talk about shapes, but less practically applied.

[Christina Mallory]

Text-To-Teaching Connection
The book discusses shapes and how they are formed to make different things such as houses, trees, wagons, etc. I would create an activity for my students to use pre-cut shapes that I provide them with to create their own unique design using paper and glue. They will be allowed to use their creativity to create whatever they desire. Also, using the activity they will be able to identify what shape they are using to create what picture they like.

[Renae Williams]

Cute book that has colorful shapes. After reading this book to pre-k or kindergartners you can have them create pictures out of the same kinds of colorful shapes that were used in the book.

[Chandler Sizemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun story about a group of mice trying to get away from a scary cat ad they make shapes to create a way to survive. They build a house out of a square and a triangle and to scare the cat away, they build three big, scary mice! This story is illustrated by Ellen Walsh and the pictures are pretty boring, but again I think they have to be because we are learning about basic shapes. The shapes are used in the book are circles, triangles, and squares. This is great to use for students in preK and Kindergarten to teach about the different kinds of shapes and how you can put them together to create things. An awesome activity would be to give your students blocks and have them create certain things like a house, a book, and a cat just like in the book!

[Nadina · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I feel like the mouse books have potential for read-aloud's and Storytime's, though not necessarily for the toddlers I am currently working with. The illustrations are simple as is the use of color, the concept of shapes is covered well, I liked how the book included all types of triangles.
I feel like this would be a great book to read before giving kids a chance to make things with shapes of their own, but again, I feel this would be something more for preschool age kids (ages 3-5) rather than toddlers.

[Ellee Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Copyright date: 2001
Star rating: 4
Award: N/A
Genre: picture book
Summary w/ themes: This book is about a group of mice who are running from a cat and hide amidst a bunch of shapes. They soon start creating things out of these shapes. This book has a theme of shapes.
Use for future classroom: This could be a fun intro for math manipulatives and then letting students create things too.
Thoughts of book: I thought this was a cute book and I love the incorporation of creation in this book.

[Arianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book as an introduction to a math lesson I taught in the beginning of year going over different shapes. This book is great and extremely engaging for any child because the three mice are running away from the cat and using the shapes that they find so they can hide in them. They have all types of shapes such as diamonds, circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, ovals. In the end they make 3 big mice and the cat is surprised and leaves them alone

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three mice seek shelter from a cat in a pile of shapes. After the danger has passed, they have fun making things with the shapes, but the cat may end their fun. Or will the shapes end the cat’s fun?

I like how this shows how basic shapes can be used to make pictures. It also does a good job of showing kids that triangles can come in a variety of formats. Kids should like the way the mice cleverly deal with the cat.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

When three mice decide to hide in a pile of shapes to escape a wily cat, they find endless ways to amuse themselves (and even a way to surprise the cat!). This book is one I would use to review shapes and colors with my students. I would ask them to make a drawing of their own using simple shapes like the ones used in the story.

[Sissi]

This is a fun book for readers to learn a story about a cat and three mice. The learners can also see the creative ways these three mice have created using the different 2D shapes. Readers can learn the names and some basic attributes of the shapes. In the end, readers can use their imagination and creativity to create a picture using all different kind of 2D shapes they know.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun shape book for younger grades as they are still learning what all the shapes names are, and how many sides they have. I think this would be really fun for them to count on the big pages how many of each shape they see, and I think they would also enjoy doing a small mini lesson afterwards with wood shapes and creating something with those shapes.

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy enough for beginning readers, and filled with fun bright colors. While the book gives us some teaching about shapes, it is not didactic. With its clever use of cutouts and collage, however, the artwork may very well lend itself to further discussion with children about shapes and how they turn up in the things all around us

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a great book to read for children who are learning their shapes! I think it would be cool to do an activity after reading this book and have students create their own houses, trees, etc. The illustrations are interesting in this book. I think the mice look a little silly!

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three mice run from a cat and hide among shapes. They find they can create so many things with squares, circles, triangles and rectangles, but they have to keep the cat away.

Cute story and illustrations that will help young ones discover shapes and what they can do with them.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute little story with bold colors and a solid discussion of shapes and how to use them to create images. My young child enjoyed seeing the animal characters. I do feel that the style of this book is outdated though.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hate media that villainizes cats. Why do we villainize cats and heroize mice? People started bringing cats into their houses to keep the mice out!

There are much better books about shapes! (And even books about mice that don't make cats into monsters.)

[Holli Shipley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for shapes. I used it in a lesson plan and we made collages using shapes. The children really enjoyed the book and the activity. It gets the imagination flowing.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

odd electronic book format

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little long, but would work for storytime.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it
super cute
great for preschool
highly recommended

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for a shapes unit.

[Bryce Decker]

This a great book for introducing shapes and their attributes. It talks about what makes each shape different as well.

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three mice, running away from a cat, discover a bunch of shapes! They play with the shapes and combine them to make objects...including decoy mice to scare the cat away!

Storytime:
Shapes

[Mojca · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book.

[Jean Doolittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming! Love the illustrations!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mice discover some shapes and make a surprise of the cat.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Requested at suppertime every night, multiple times.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love Mouse Count and Mouse Paint as well as this one, which is great for exploring shapes. Great for toddlers to pre-k