Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary

One of our favorite recent discoveries is Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, by Beverly Donofrio and illustrated by Barbara McClintock. Mary is a young girl who lives in a big brick house, and one day she bends down to pick up a fork and notices a little mouse doing the same thing in a hole in the wall. Mary and the mouse start doing the same routine each evening so they can catch a peek at each other.

The illustrations are detailed, colorful, and show many parallels between the lives of Mary and the mouse. It's fun to ask your child to find some of these, such as the furniture being in the same configuration in the house and the mouse house or the both families wearing the same colors and having the same number of children.

The mouse and her family end up living with grown-up Mary and her family, and their daughters find each other by dropping a book each night and have many of the same parallels between their families. In the end there is a fun little surprise when they finally interact more directly.

This charming book doesn't have an obvious moral or anything like that, but with such a heartwarming story and warm, thoughtful illustrations, I didn't care. My child and I both enjoyed it equally. I only wish the author and illustrator would collaborate on some more books!