Bless This Mouse: A Soft-to-Touch Book

by Dianna Hutts Aston, John Butler (Illustrator)

One of the smallest animals in the forest offers a prayer, moving in its simplicity, powerful in its message, beautiful in its visual and -- literally -- touchable art.
As day breaks and the sun rises, the woodland night creatures prepare for sleep. The smallest among them, a tiny mouse, bows his head and recites a sweet and touching prayer:
Bless all creatures North and South,
Bless trees, and trunks, and roots, and boughs.
Bless all creatures East and West.
Bless Mama, bless Papa -- I love them best.
In nature paintings of rare beauty, John Butler depicts the misty, early morning woodland setting with great delicacy, detailed realism, and reverence. The flocking throughout enhances not only the loveliness of the art, but the enjoyment of young readers who will love touching/petting the appealing little mouse and all the glories of nature that surround him.

Genres: Picture Books

18 pages, Hardcover

First published December 30, 2004

About the author

Dianna Hutts Aston was born in Houston, Texas, attended the University of Houston, and worked as a journalist for several years. LOONY LITTLE is her first picture book with Candlewick Press. She says, "It was one of the hottest summer days on record. My mind, of its own accord, kept wandering northward, to a wilderness of snow and ice, the Arctic. While listening to the news one evening, I heard Peter Jennings say, ‘The polar icecap is melting - or is it?’ In my mind, I heard, ‘The sky is falling!’ The whole concept for LOONY LITTLE literally fell from the sky and into my mind." Dianna Hutts Aston lives in central Texas with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Alana]

My little one really enjoyed scratching at the different texture on the pages. The illustrations are lovely and lots of different animals represented as beautiful, even spiders!

[Abigail]

A little woodland mouse awakens in the morning and says his prayers, calling down blessings on all of the creatures around him in this sweet rhyming picture book from American author Dianna Hutts Aston and English illustrator John Butler. From the fawn to the raccoon, the skunk to the snail, creatures large and small are named and blessed, as is the natural world around him, until the mouse settles down to sleep...

Published in 2004, Bless This Mouse was Aston's third book, and features textured sections on the page, that children can touch and feel. I myself wasn't able to experience this aspect of the book, as I read it in digitized form, but I expect that this enhances the soft feeling evoked by text and artwork here. For my part, I'm not sure I would have ever tracked this down or read it, if I wasn't seeking out some of this author's older work, having greatly enjoyed her later picture books— An Egg Is Quiet , A Seed Is Sleepy , etc.—about various topics in nature. That being said, I did find mouse's prayer very sweet, thought the rhyming text read well, and enjoyed the lovely illustrations. Younger children who enjoy stories of woodland creatures might enjoy this one, as a gentle bedtime book, and it is for that purpose that I would recommend it.

[Margaret]

Adorable picture book with rhyming text. The illustrations of the animals are fuzzy so that children can "pet" them.