Mouse Letters

by Michelle Cartlidge

Genres: Childrens

24 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Michelle Cartlidge is an English writer and illustrator. She has written and illustrated over 50 children's books since leaving the Royal College of Art. She has won the Mother Goose Award.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an adorable tiny book that I had nearly forgotten all about. I need to unearth my copy. What I remember loving so much about it, were all of the miniscule letters that unfolded right from tiny envelopes on the story pages: letters written by the mice. I recall that it was very sweet and gentle. I have forgotten whether the letters are written *to* the children reading the book, to a child in the story, or from mice to other mice. Won't it be fun to find out again?

I first discovered this pretty, delicately-illustrated book many (many!) years ago, while working as a nanny. My charges were just old enough to enjoy animal stories and very tiny things, and to be convinced that the world of "make believe" is true. I remember that we spent that entire spring reading and re-reading that story (and Peter Pan, and The Borrowers). One day we decided to see what would happen if we wrote tiny letters *back* to the mice. Surely there were mice living somewhere in the children's enormous back yard? Mice that we could communicate with?

This was the first spring that I had planted runner beans in their garden, to climb up a "tipi" of poles, so the kiddos had a living tent to play inside. We decided to leave our first tiny letter inside the Bean Tent. We asked the mice what their lives were like. And what do you know? Those mice wrote back, directly to the kids (wink, wink): they asked to share some of the runner beans, and some of the squash. The children (who were very small) asked whether we might plant some "cheese plants" in the garden, too. The Bean Tent became one of several hiding places where our mice would leave the kiddos letters, and a few trinkets.

It was a very fun spring for extending that story through all of our tiny letter adventures. In the best possible way, this silly little book encouraged many activities: it got the children outdoors, even in less-than-ideal weather, to search for the hiding place of our own latest letter; it got us interested in mice and their habitats, so we went to the library to look at real mice in children's non-fiction books; it got us interested in foods that field mice like, so that we could importune the children's father (the real gardener in the home) to let them have their own corner of the garden, to start planting seeds; and it got the older child, about to enter Pre-K, interested in learning a little about writing, and therefore reading. Their mom got into the spirit of things, too: on a newly-built windowseat, she painted a tiny mouse door in a bottom corner, "just in case."

You never know what story will strike a child's interest and have them off and running, wanting it to last, so that you must look for creative ways to "keep the story going." Who would have thought, that a cute 10 minute story, whose plot I have long forgotten, would draw out an entire spring, from one adventure to the next? That is the joy of childhood and of children's books. That is the magic. All it takes is one special book. For my charges, it was this book. For your children or grandchildren... who knows? Go and find out!

Recommended for girls AND boys, ages 3-7. (Yes, this is a very pastel, sweet, tiny book. And yes, there are little boys who like such things. My little boy charge, P____, was the most interested in planting the "mouse food" seeds, and in drawing pictures of what "his" mice probably looked like.)

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mouse books were my favourite when I was little!