The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban

The mice are searching for the things that people want: happiness, a family, a home, self-winding freedom, from their bright morning in the toy shop at Christmas to their ending on a birdhouse platform by a railway line, near the town dump. These illustrations remind me more of Sir Quentin Blake, but with close attention to shade and tone which adds a slightly noir feel. Lillian Hoban is perhaps best known for her I-Can-Read illustrations for the Arthur series.Īrthur Levine commissioned illustrator David Small to do the artwork for their updated edition in 2001. There is a distinctly Disney feel about it.

The original edition was illustrated by Russell Hoban’s wife, Lillian.

What happens to the mouse and his child in their search for the magnificent doll house, the plush elephant, and the tin seal they had known in the toyshop is a tale to remember and return to. Thrown away, then rescued from a trash can and repaired by a tramp, they set out on a perilous odyssey to follow the child’s dream of a family and a place of their own. So begins the story of a tin father and son who dance under a Christmas tree until they break the ancient clock-work rules and are themselves broken. “What are we, Papa?” the toy mouse child asked his father. That said, the book has been reprinted and re-illustrated Some people speculate it’s due to ‘hygiene’ - that picking toys out of the dump isn’t clean. Why is The Mouse and His Child not more widely read today? Townsend explains that The Mouse And His Child is clearly North American but has, for some reason, been far more popular in Britain, where it is regarded a classic. White‘s Charlotte’s Web by contrasting with a large part of children’s literature in the sense of occasional use of advanced vocabulary, a willingness to include adult themes, and talking animals.

In some ways it can be compared to Charlotte’s Web, but Charlotte’s Web continues to be more widely known. Animal Land, Margaret Blount Hoban, Lillian, The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban, 1967 It is about toy mice, yet the clockwork father and son move through a world in which small animals act out human dramas. Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child (1969) is such a strange, haunting and distinguished book that it is very difficult to classify. The Lion And The Mouse Story With Moral Lesson And SummaryĪs Margaret Blount says, The Mouse and His Child defies classification, and is therefore of interest to critics and children’s literature enthusiasts:

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban