Malcolm Mouse, Explorer

by Janet Graber

Malcolm, an orphaned field mouse, is considered a nuisance by his house-mouse relatives who live at 65 Rodent Row, Mouse-Town Estates, in the gloomy basement of Balmoral Castle. He is a misfit who does poorly at school and is bullied by his cousins. While house mice serve as collectors within the castle walls, Malcolm yearns to follow in his daddie's paw-steps and become an explorer of the outside world. While collecting in the royal kitchen one afternoon, Malcolm is discovered by Chief Castle Cook. In his mad dash to escape, Malcolm inadvertently exposes the MI Mouse-Way Ramp 3 to human eyes. Disaster strikes! Royal staff board up mouse holes and bait traps with poison. Mouse-Town Estates is threatened with death and starvation. Malcolm seizes the opportunity to try to save the house-mouse community and to explore the outside world at the same time. Will Malcolm survive four fat royal corgis, being trapped in the royal handbag, arrest and imprisonment to save the day? Will Malcolm realize his dream of becoming an explorer field mouse? Or will Her Majesty the Queen succeed in chopping off his head?

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Janet Graber is an author who has received a McKnight Award given by the Minnesota Literary Loft. She lives in Minnesota.

Reviews

[Cynthia Rodrigues]

Malcolm has been reluctantly taken in by his Aunt Flora after the deaths of his dad, a field mouse, in a trap, and his mom, squashed underfoot. Aunt Flora lives at Balmoral Castle, one of the homes of the British royal family, and doesn’t like him. Not one bit. It doesn’t help that Malcolm is bad at all school subjects related to surviving as a house mouse.
While out looking for food one day with his cousins, Malcolm inadvertently gets them all into trouble by being seen and nearly getting caught, and getting injured in the process. The castle staff act swiftly, closing all holes, poisoning food stores and setting traps everywhere, killing some mice and critically injuring several others in the process. The castle mice are now in danger of starving to death. Everyone blames Malcolm for this state of affairs. He can only redeem himself by finding a solution to their food problem. He offers to find another way around the castle and ensure that food supplies don’t get depleted.

I loved the character of Malcolm right from the start. The author gave us nuggets of his back story that make us warm towards him.
The resolution of the story, between the Queen and Malcolm, didn’t make logical sense, but this is a story meant for young children, and they’re not so finicky about logic sometimes.