Murphy and Mousetrap

by Sylvia Olsen

Murphy's mother has just moved him and their cat, Mousetrap, back to the reserve in Port Alberni. Although he belongs to the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, Murphy is sure that he won't fit in, and he worries about Mousetrap, who has always been an indoor cat. When a bunch of local boys drag him to their soccer practice, put him in goal and pelt him with balls, he believes that his worst fear has come true. However, he seems to be discovering a new talent at the same time. And perhaps he has misjudged. Being a light-skinned city boy thrust onto a reserve far from the city is not easy, but maybe Murphy has what it takes.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sylvia Olsen is a writer and public speaker living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. She is the author of several picture books, a number of first readers and novels for young adults and one non fiction—so far. Most of all she is a mother and grandmother and aunty to dozens of nieces and nephews.

Sylvia has spent most of her life living in Tsartlip First Nation, where her children and grandchildren now live. Because Sylvia is non native and her children are of mixed heritage most of her stories are about the place—the time—the experience of where different sorts of people come together. That’s one of the things that interests her the most. It’s one of the things she knows the most about—and like many authors—Sylvia writes about what she knows.

Her newest books are: a historical fiction set in the Gulf Islands called Counting on Hope (Sono Nis, Fall 2009) and A Different Game (Orca Books, Spring 2010). She is currently working on an adult non fiction and dreaming up a new story for a Young Adult novel (making it up is her favourite part of the writing process).

Writing is Sylvia’s most important hobby. She also loves to draw, sew, knit and design clothing. Her ‘real’ job is in housing. Her career, her dedication and her passion are to make sure everyone has a healthy place to live.

Reviews

[Manybooks]

Canadian author Sylvia Olsen was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, married into the Tsartlip First Nation at the age of seventeen and has subsequently lived on the Tsartlip reserve lands (Saanich, British Columbia) raising her four children there (with three of Olsen's children being part Coast Salish and the fourth a Brazilian who was adopted at the age of thirteen). Thus, while Sylvia Olsen is technically speaking not an OwnVoices author, for me and because her First Nations themed writings have generally been positively received and reviewed by Native American/Canadian scholars and activists such as Debbie Reese and Beverly Slapin, I do kind of feel like one should probably consider Sylvia Olsen as an honorary OwnVoices writer, and that with her life story and her marriage Olsen in my opinion also textually understands and is familiar with not just First Nations but also and specifically with issues encountered and experienced by children who are part First Nations, and which is thematically and contents wise clearly and engagingly shown with and in her 2005 middle grade novel Murphy and Mousetrap (but just to point out before starting my actual review for Murphy and Mousetrap that unlike how the novel is shelved at Open Library, no, Murphy and Mousetrap is not about a Métis child, since the latter description and term really only pertains to individuals of French Canadian and First Nations ancestry and which is most definitely not the case regarding Sylvia Olsen's Murphy Jones).

So in Murphy and Mousetrap, Olsen shows how Murphy Jones is a nine-year-old boy who lives a quietly contented and also pretty sedate and undramatic life with his single mother and his cat Mousetrap in a British Columbia city (not specifically named, but in my opinion likely Victoria since it is clearly shown that Murphy and Mousetrap takes place on Vancouver Island), with Murphy's mother being Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations and Murphy's father being Caucasian (and someone whom Murphy has actually never met, and that yes, we as readers of Murphy and Mousetrap also never learn all that much about the main protagonist's father either except that he lives in another Canadian province and that Murphy's easily sunburned skin colour, blue eyes and blondish hair are genetic inheritances from his father, as well as his first name, although Murphy of course also physically very much resembles his First Nations mother), how Murphy’s life of going to school, collecting rocks, spending time on his computer and playing hide and seek with Mousetrap, with his cat is interrupted and comes to a caesura when at the beginning of Murphy and Mousetrap his mother announces that she has accepted a new job that will bring a move back to where she is from and where she grew up, back to the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations reserve (and which is located near Port Alberni, British Columbia).

And Murphy and Mousetrap really nicely and realistically relates the experiences of both Murphy and Mousetrap (and to a point the mother as well) adjusting to their new home in Grandma’s basement (on the reserve), with one of Murphy’s biggest concerns being how his indoor and urban cat will adjust to a much rougher, often outdoor and muddy existence on the reserve, something with which Mousetrap actually has no issues at all and that Murphy's worries regarding his cat kind of pale in comparison to his own much more reluctant and even recalcitrant acceptance of his new home, how Murphy for much of Murhy and Mousetrap is shown by Sylvia Olsen as feeling that the move to the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations reserve has been positive and good for both his mother and equally so for Mousetrap but not so much for himself. But when Murphy is challenged to join the other boys on the soccer field and proves himself a talented goaltender, just like Mousetrap adjusts to a new lifestyle of roaming free on the reserve with the other cats, Murphy eventually also becomes accustomed to life on the reserve, finds acceptance and respect amongst the other (and at first rather negatively inclined towards Murphy) boys of the reserve through his involvement in soccer (although I do find it just a trifle strange and a wee bit frustrating that Murphy and Mousetrap basically features no girls, that aside from Murphy's mother and grandmother, all or at least most of the actively participating in the story of Murphy and Mousetrap characters seem to be male).

Now with regard to the thematics of moving, of relocating to a different place, Sylvia Olsen with Murphy and Mousetrap realistically but also without being overly dramatic conveys the negative perceptions, the emotional turmoil children relocating to a new community often if not even generally can feel, can experience, and that yes, even though Murphy is in fact not immigrating to a different country in Murphy and Mousetrap (and actually remains in British Columbia), his issues fitting in and being accepted on and by the reserve are indeed and in my opinion (and speaking as an immigrant myself) pretty similar to what immigration is or can be, can engender. For Murphy (even though he is part First Nations) also sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb on the reserve (having as mentioned above inherited his father’s blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin) and that he looking "too Caucasian" combined with being the new kid cause Murphy to become the brunt of bullying (but that said bullying is finally rendered moot when the originally nasty action in Murphy and Mousetrap of making Murphy the goalie during the boys' soccer games turns out to be a blessing and shows that by the end of Murphy and Mousetrap Murphy is seen and accepted as a talented goalie, a valuable teammate, a potential friend and no longer considered to be an interloper.

A fun, engaging and uplifting story is Murphy and Mousetrap (and with Darlene Gait's accompanying pencil illustrations providing a delightful visual complement to and for what Sylvia Olsen is textually presenting but without becoming overwhelming and/or overtaking the featured text). And yes, aside from Murphy and Mousetrap providing an in my opinion superb narrative in and of itself with some wonderful and important messages, Murphy and Mousetrap is also an excellent textual tool for introducing middle grade readers to life on a First Nation reserve with Olsen describing a landscape where all the houses around Grandma’s place belong to Murphy’s many aunts and uncles, with no apartment buildings, no gas stations, no streetlights, no McDonalds and not even a school close by, and with common misconceptions and stereotypes regarding Indian reserves being accessibly challenged by Olsen having nuanced characters with a strong sense of community and family, and with even the children who at first bully Murphy soon realising that he is an asset to their community and to their soccer team (and not to mention that I really do appreciate that in Murphy and Mousetrap, soccer is the game of choice and that Sylvia Olsen does not automatically and stereotypically make everyone play lacrosse).

[Christina]

Murphy and Mousetrap is the story of a city boy and his fluffy, spoiled, indoor cat, who moved back home to the reserve when his mom got a new job. Never having lived on reserve before, both Murphy and Mousetrap initially struggle to fit into their new community.
Another easy to read, relatable story by a Canadian author.