[BOOK REVIEW] Once a Mouse...by Marcia Brown

Title:  Once a Mouse...

Author:  Marcia Brown

Genre:  Children's / India / Animals / Gratitude / Folktale

Year Published: 1961

Year Read:  1997 (Re Read: 2018)

Publisher:  Charles Scribner's Sons

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 5+  (Some Intense Situations)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Revised Review (For Reread):

*Original Rating: 4 stars*
*Rating Now: 5 stars* 

Now, I had read Marcia Brown’s retelling of the ancient Indian folktale “Once a Mouse…” many years ago and I had actually written a review for it years ago (some of my thoughts in the original review will be restated in this all new review)!  So, I decided to read this book again after all of these years to see if I still felt the same way I did years ago and surprisingly enough, I found out that I liked this book better the second time around than I did the first time (which is so awesome)!

The story started off with a wise old hermit thinking about big and little, when suddenly, he sees a mouse being chased by a crow and he ends up saving the mouse from the crow.  From then on, the hermit started taking care of the mouse until a cat came into the clearing and was about to eat the mouse until the hermit changed the mouse into an even bigger cat. Afterwards, the mouse kept getting threatened with a bigger animal until the hermit finally transformed the mouse into a tiger and the tiger, who was once a mouse, starts taking advantage of its huge size.

What will the hermit do with the tiger now?

Read this book to find out!

Marcia Brown had done an excellent job with both writing and illustrating this ancient tale from India.  I loved the way that Marcia Brown made this story so dramatic, especially since I was sitting on the edge of my seat trying to see if the mouse will survive in the forest with all of the dangers such as a cat, a dog and a tiger, threatening it.  I also loved the fact that Marcia Brown tackled the importance of being grateful to the people who helped you as it provides a great lesson for children to learn about being thankful to the people who have helped them out of a dangerous or complicated situation.  Marcia Brown’s illustrations are creative and rough-edged as the characters have jagged limbs and the coloring that is the most prevalent in this book are red, black, white and brown which creates a traditional atmosphere to this story.

The only problem I had with this book was that the narrative was a bit of a struggle to get through because the sentences were broken up, meaning that one half of the sentence would be on one page and the other half of the sentence continues onto the next page.  This can be extremely confusing for smaller children who are reading this book and parents might want to help their children read through this book to help their children understand the book much better.

Overall, “Once a Mouse” is a truly wonderful tale about how it is important to show gratitude towards someone who has helped you get out of a sticky situation, or in this case, four sticky situations!  This book will surely become a great classic for children who are interested in Indian culture.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the sentence structure might be a bit too difficult for smaller children to read through.

* 1962 Caldecott Medal

* 1966 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

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[BOOK REVIEW] Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott

Title:  Arrow to the Sun

Author:  Gerald McDermott

Genre:  Native American / Parental Issues / Folktale / Fantasy

Year Published: 1974

Year Read:  2010

Publisher: The Viking Press

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Themes of Parental Abandonment)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Arrow to the Sun” is a Caldecott Medal Award winning book by Gerald McDermott that relates an old Pueblo Indian tale about a boy who tries to find his father, the Lord of the Sun and prove himself worthy to be his son.  “Arrow to the Sun” is a fun and creative book that many children who love Native American folktales, will easily get into!

Gerald McDermott has done many wonders with both the illustrations and the writing.  Gerald McDermott makes the story dramatic and simple at the same time as the writing is often shown on one side of the page and the other side of the page contains mainly images and many children who are adopted can easily relate to the boy as he tries to find his real father and many children can sympathize with the boy as some children might feel like they have to find their real parents to find out about their real heritage, so this story is similar to an adoption story for children who were often adopted and they want to learn more about their real parents.  Gerald McDermott’s are extremely colorful as they show all the colorful vibes that you would find in a 70s show as this book was made during the 70s and the illustrations are also highly creative as the characters are all block shaped and there is no real figure to the characters to identify them as human beings as they look like blocks rather than human beings.  The image that stood out the most was the image of the boy being turned into an arrow and being shot out into the heavens towards the sun and you can see that the stars also look block shaped but are also done in rainbow colors making the illustration look truly magnificent.

“Arrow to the Sun” is a brilliant folktale about the power of courage and determination and many children who love hearing various folktales from the around the world will definitely love this book.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book unless smaller children might worry about the boy’s misfortune with the other boys for not having a father in his life.

* 1975 Caldecott Medal

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[BOOK REVIEW] Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper by Marcia Brown

Title:  Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper

Author:  Marcia Brown

Genre: Fairy Tale / Fantasy / Royalty

Year Published: 1954

Year Read: 2010

Publisher:   Charles Scribner's Sons

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Mistreatment of a Child)

Buy on:  Amazon  // Book Depository

“Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper” is the winner of the Caldecott Medal and is one of the earlier books by Marcia Brown that retells the French fairy tale “Cinderella” about how a miserable girl named Cinderella tries to go to the grand ball with the help of her fairy godmother.  “Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper” is clearly one of Marcia Brown’s most memorable books yet!

Marcia Brown has indeed created many children’s books throughout her life.  Imagine my surprise and excitement when I read her first children’s book!  Marcia Brown has made this version of Cinderella much more tame than in the other versions of “Cinderella” I have seen as Cinderella’s stepsisters in this version seem a bit nicer to Cinderella by easily telling Cinderella about their time at the ball, although they still maintained their cruel nature by teasing Cinderella about not going to the ball, which is a bit unusual for in most versions that I have read of “Cinderella,” the stepsisters were always mean to Cinderella regardless of the situation that Cinderella was in.  Marcia Brown’s illustrations are truly beautiful and simplistic in this version of the classic fairy tale as Cinderella truly looks beautiful with her wavy golden hair and beautiful black eyes.  Also, the illustrations are a bit simplistic due to the fact that there is barely any color in the background, but the color is mainly focused on the characters, which allows the characters to stand out more, which I have never seen done in any other book that have simplistic illustrations.

“Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper” is a brilliant retelling of the classic fairy tale that I think will be more suitable to children who want to read the more tame version of the fairy tale and will be a great hit for children everywhere.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book other than the stepsisters’ poor behavior towards Cinderella.

* 1955 Caldecott Medal

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[BOOK REVIEW] Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

Title:  Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Author:  William Steig

Genre: Family / Drama / Magic / Animals

Year Published: 1969

Year Read:  2008

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Discussions about loss of a child)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” is one of William Steig’s earlier books and has proven to be the most emotional and heartwarming of all of his books. Also, this was William Steig’s first controversial book due to the image of the police being portrayed as pigs, even though I do not think that it is an issue because all the characters are animals, but it depends on how you view this issue. Anyway, William Steig’s dramatic storyline and illustrations has won this book a Caldecott Book Award and will surely be a treat to read.

William Steig has done an excellent job at beautifully detailing a young donkey’s attempts to change back to normal after a wish goes awry. Both children and adults will feel for Sylvester’s great sadness at not being able to tell his parents that he is still alive and his parents’ misery as they thought that their darling son was dead. William Steig’s illustrations are beautiful and detailed as he vividly draws the sad and happy emotions on Sylvester’s parents’ faces when they worried about their son, Sylvester. Also, the illustrations of the flowers and the trees and even the snow during the winter scene are memorizing as they provide a calm background the images.

***Small Rant:***

Alright, so everyone who has been browsing through various banned books knows that the reason why this book was banned was because of the image of the policemen being portrayed as pigs. First of all, I have an issue with this book being banned because of that reason.  I mean, this is a book about TALKING ANIMALS, so what is wrong with the police being portrayed as pigs in a book about talking animals?  Also, the main character is a DONKEY! So, that means that if the characters were switched and the main character was a pig and the policemen were donkeys, would that still be an issue?  There were a couple of banned books where I do not agree with the reasons of it being banned (although, I never agree with any book being banned), but this was one of those books where I think the reason for it being banned was COMPLETELY unjustified.

***Rant Ended***

Also, the scenes where Sylvester's parents worry about Sylvester's whereabouts might worry smaller children who might worry about whether or not Sylvester will ever transform back into himself again.  Parents should reassure their children about the importance of staying safe if they wonder out into an unknown area.

“Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” is William Steig’s milestone children’s book as it discusses the love that Mr. and Mrs. Duncan have for their child, Sylvester, when he turns up missing and how the spell of the magic pebble is broken when Mr. and Mrs. Duncan wished for their child’s return. This book will be a cult favorite for both children and adults and is suitable for children ages five and up, even though it discusses the loss of a child.

* 1970 Caldecott Medal

* 1970 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books

* 1978 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

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• The Amazing Bone by William Steig

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 REASON FOR BEING BANNED: For having illustrations that portrayed police characters as pigs.

[BOOK REVIEW] Shadow by Marcia Brown

Title:  Shadow

Author:  Marcia Brown

Genre:  Fantasy / Africa ./ Folktale / Horror

Year Published: 1982

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:   Charles Scribner's Sons

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 6+  (Some Scary Imagery)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Shadow” is a Caldecott Medal award winning book by Marcia Brown and it is about what shadows do around people and what they do when they are not looking.  “Shadow” may be a bit scary for smaller children, but it is truly a mesmerizing book that children would enjoy for many years.

Marcia Brown has wonderfully given a vivid description of what shadows do and what they are like and put the description of shadows in a poetic format and Marcia Brown does a great job at making shadows seem so mysterious as they constantly follow people around in ghostly figures.  Marcia Brown’s illustrations are truly eerie yet creative as the people in the book are drawn as black shadows while the shadows themselves are drawn as white ghostly figures following the shadowed characters, however, there are some shadows that are dark figures such as the shadow coming out of the ash from the fire.  The images perfectly blend color and black and white to bring out a more effective look at the world of shadows such as putting shadowed figures against colorful mountainsides or forests.

Parents should know that there are some scary images in this book which involves images of the shadows taking frightening shapes such as one shadow wearing a very frightening mask and another large shadow that has ash for eyes and is walking on four wobbly legs.  Many small children would also be frighten about the idea that shadows can come to life when they least expect it and it might cause many small children to not go to sleep at night because they might be afraid of their shadows coming to life to get them.  Parents need to explain to their children that shadows do not come alive and they are apart of people.

“Shadow” is a brilliant book that takes on the views of the mysterious world of shadows and it will have many children mesmerized for many years.  I would recommend this book to children ages six and up since the images are truly frightening and smaller children might be frightened at the idea that shadows come to life in this book.

* 1983 Caldecott Medal
* 1983 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Picture Books (Hardcover)

[BOOK REVIEW] Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey

Title: Time of Wonder

Author:  Robert McCloskey

Genre:  Family / Nature / Weather / Poetry / Exploration

Year Published: 1957

Year Read:  2010

Publisher: The Viking Press

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (One Intense Scene involving a Hurricane)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

When I first read this book as a child, I did not really care for this book since I thought that this book was too boring to sit through.  However, when I read this book later on as an adult, I realized that this book was a truly moving book.  “Time of Wonder” is a Caldecott Medal award winning book from the great mind of Robert McCloskey and it is about how a family spends their time on the islands enjoying the beauties of the island.  “Time of Wonder” may seem a bit too boring for smaller children, but it is truly one of Robert McCloskey’s most beautiful and moving books ever created!

Robert McCloskey has done a great job at making the story extremely dreamy and beautiful as he describes the girls’ adventures on the island in a dreamy and poetic fashion, giving the story a beautiful feeling, the type of feeling you get when you go to a wonderful place.  Robert McCloskey’s illustrations are much different in this book than in his other books since the images are actually colored instead of the usual black and white images that he usually uses for most of his books.  Robert McCloskey’s illustrations are truly realistic and beautiful as he shows images of the island showing its beauty towards the two girls.  The images that stood out the most in this book are the images of the ferns growing and the images of the hurricane coming towards the island.  The images with the ferns growing shows the ferns uncurling themselves from the ground, which is truly a beautiful sight and the images of the hurricane coming to the island shows the storm making a strong wind that violently blows at the family’s house and you can see the waves being blown so violently and the family being blown by the wind as the father tries desperately to close the door.

Smaller children might be bored with this book since the beginning is a tad bit too slow and the action does not really come around until the scene of the hurricane coming to the island.  Also, the length of this book is much longer than most picture books and many small children might become bored with this book.  Parents might want to read one section of the book for the first day and then read the second section of the book the next day so that way children would not become so easily bored.

“Time of Wonder” is a beautiful and enchanting book about enjoying the true beauty of nature that will have many children respecting nature so much more.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up due to the slow beginning.     

*  1958 Caldecott Medal