A Moose Called Mouse

by Martine Murray

“Mouse is a moose. He’s not a mouse or a louse or anything else. He’s a moose I call Mouse.” So begins the unique story about a young girl and her secret rendezvous with a charming moose named Mouse, who has “big, funny horns that look like cauliflower, or coral, or bare winter branches or Uncle Clive’s cactus.” Minimal words and fanciful illustrations impart a sense of the personalities of this unlikely pair as they meet in the night to celebrate the next day’s sunrise. Children will delight in this warm, playful story about friendship and wonder and also will learn how to make their own cauliflower moose-horns.

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Martine Murray, a native and a current resident of Melbourne, Australia, is an accomplished author with a variety of other talents and interests. She has studied film making at Prahan College, painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, and movement and dance at Melbourne University. She began writing as a method of keeping track of all of her activities. She explains, “I was writing in journals a lot while I was in art school. I also used to write on my canvasses or write on etchings and make tiny stories that weren't really stories, they were more like sketches of moments.”

Soon enough, Martine had authored and illustrated the gentle, funny, and gloriously playful books such as The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life). In the story of twelve-year old Cedar B. Hartley, the young heroine befriends the son of a circus family and coordinates a local circus to raise money for the community's dog operation. The book has won a number of awards, including NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Book Sense 76 Children's Pick, it was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the year Award, shortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, and won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Books.

Martine Murray is currently enrolled in Professional Writing at RMIT and plans further study in screen writing and short story.

Reviews

[Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very lighthearted, enjoyable quick read

[Sarah Mayor Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly beautiful book.

I quivered with delight when I first read A Moose Called Mouse.
Not an adult, sophisticated and knowing quiver, but a delicious, child-like quiver.
The sort of quiver I remember form my own childhood.
The sort of quiver which came from discovering a book so delightful, so free, so logical (in a child’s sort of way), so strange that I couldn’t fully understand it – even though I loved it at once.
A Moose Called Mouse is the story of a child and her friendship with her moose, whom she has named mouse.
The story has a dreamlike feel – the reader never quite knows whether moose is real, or the child’s imaginary friend. But rather than distracting or confusing the reader, this uncertainty heightens the appeal of the story because it takes the child out past reality into the world of imagination.
Often when children are deeply absorbed in play, they are not distracted by adult concepts like: What is real?, or what is made up?
They do not seem fussed about where one ends and the other begins.
Martine Murray has captured this quality of a child’s concentration in a very sensitive way.
For the lovers of indulgent and apparently nonsensical books, this is a publication not governed by the holy dollar. I don’t imagine it will make huge amounts of money for Allen and Unwin, but I applaud them for its publication.
It is a book driven by story, rather than the need to educate.
It is the sort of book our young children need to have the time to engage with.
It has all the elements of a beautifully crafted book.
The text, illustrations and design capture the unhurried mood and the companionship of the story perfectly. I recommend it highly.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

am going to read it at kindy tomorrow.

simple words, powerful message.