Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-6. From the writer and illustrator of Christmas Mice! (2000), Halloween Mice! (1995), and Valentine Mice! (1998), here's a Thanksgiving picture book for young children. Thanksgiving is the story within a story here, as interpreted by a group of little costumed mice who are putting on a pageant. The rhymed verse sets an upbeat tone for the action. There's plenty of comic byplay in the watercolor illustrations, which show the furry thespians acting out a very simplified story of the Mayflower voyage, the hardships the Pilgrims endured on land, and the triumph represented by Thanksgiving. The happy--though occasionally hapless--members of the little troupe slosh paint on the stage and knock each other over with bits of scenery, as well as acting out the tale with enthusiasm. Preschool and early elementary grade teachers looking for a short, light introduction to the holiday may want to give this colorful picture book a try. --Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In another reenactment, Thanksgiving Mice! by Bethany Roberts, illus. by Doug Cushman, rodents are the stars. Simple rhyming text and historical basics come together as the Holiday Mice present a play. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-The origins of Thanksgiving are explained by a group of mice as they put on a play for their animal friends. Cushman's cheerful spreads show the little creatures using handmade props and putting their all into this neighborhood production. The characters are charming and the colors are vibrant. Where pictures appear in a smaller frame, objects often extend into the borders for visual appeal. The problem comes with the text. Short rhyming stanzas at first seem to offer a pleasing read-aloud pattern, only to dissolve into an odd scheme, and readers may constantly try to recover a poetic balance that isn't there. Another problem comes with fictionalizing the Pilgrims as mice and keeping true to the Thanksgiving account. These diminutive Pilgrims wear clothes, sail on the Mayflower, suffer a hard winter, and plant corn, but that continuity breaks when "They built new homes in tree trunks-" instead of houses. There is a scarcity of Thanksgiving books for this age group that can adequately explain the historical significance of the holiday in very simple terms. Halloween Mice! (Clarion, 1995) by the same duo hit upon a combination of text and pictures that works very well, but it isn't trying to tie in a historical concept. If you aren't overly concerned with an odd poetic structure or a break in the logic of mice as Pilgrims, then this book should fill a gap in read-aloud Thanksgiving material for the younger set.-Carol Marshall, Bridgeport Public Library, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Four mice put on a play for other woodland animals about the first Thanksgiving. While the illustrations are cheerful, the story is told in uninspired rhyme and provides an extremely simple view of the origins of the holiday without offering original or amusing details to make it unique. From HORN BOOK Spring 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
