Mousekin's Easter Basket

Mousekin #13

by Edna Miller

After a harsh winter, Mousekin's springtime search for food brings him in contact with brightly colored eggs, a white rabbit, and other symbols of Easter

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Holiday

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Born in 1920 and grew up in NYC. Later lived in Vermont and Maryland.

"As a child I developed a great love of animals. At the zoo in Central Park, I made childish sketches of my favorite animals. The Museum of Natural History was my second home.......The idea for my first book, Mousekin's Golden House, came to me shortly after Halloween when I had put the family pumpkin outside. One evening I noticed a small, white-footed mouse exploring the jack-o'-lantern for the few seeds it contained. I thought what a fine house it would make for a white-footed mouse who forever discards one home and searches for another."

"Edna Miller grew up in New York City near The American Museum of Natural History where the animal exhibits always interested her. During her travels in this country and abroad, Mrs. Miller has observed the behavior and habits of animal life. After completing Mousekin's Christmas Eve, Mrs. Miller felt there was only one reward she could give the live mouse she was using as her model. He had been well fed and exercised, but a wire cage was no place for a healthy mouse. She 'carried the cage to the woods and opened the door-- to freedom.'" --from the dustjacket of Mousekins's Christmas Eve.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spring had come to the forest, along with the rains, and Mousekins needed to find a new, drier home for himself. Exploring all of the possibilities, he encountered a massive white rabbit, whose thumping warned him when danger was near. Eventually, fleeing before an owl, he discovered a strange garden, complete with flowers previously unknown to him, and a basket full of eggs of an unusual color. When a child appeared to claim the basket, Mousekins fled, while his white rabbit friend followed after the child and her companion...

First published in 1986, Mousekin's Easter Basket was the thirteenth title in author/illustrator Edna Miller's fifteen-volume Mouskin series, begun in 1964 with Mousekin's Golden House , and concluded in 1992 with Mousekin's Lost Woodland . I had no idea, picking this title up, that it belonged to such an extensive series, but I am glad to discover it, as I found this entry charming. The narrative is simple, and the artwork lovely. Everything has a naturalistic feeling to it - real animals, out in the real world - even the white bunny, who, with his ribbons of various colors, clearly belongs to the children seen at the end of the story. There is a gentle, innocent quality to the story here, as Mousekin remains enmeshed in his wild, murine world, but briefly encounters the human one, through his visit to the garden. As mentioned, the illustrations are just lovely. Like Carol and Donald Carrick's A Rabbit for Easter , the last "Easter" picture-book I read, this really isn't an Easter story at all, so much as one which occurs at Eastertide. I would recommend it to picture-book readers who enjoy mouse stories. For my own part, I intend to track down other titles about Mouskins.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the story and illustrations a lot, and more importantly, the 1.5-year old loved it.
Only peeve: the bird in the pictures looks more like a red-breasted meadowlark than a robin.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have loved these lovely little books when I was a child. The specific details of nature (a "white-footed mouse" and a (domestic) rabbit "bigger than a hare,... much bigger than a cottontail" would have appealed to my love of learning, and the adventures are just exciting enough but still cozy.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mousekin stories are always so fun to read. They portray real animal's lives...minus the Easter bunny :-) and are fun for the adult reader as well as the toddler listener!