Review by Booklist Review
Michael's pet, Bo, is a big mouse (really big bigger than Michael) with an outsize personality and boundless enthusiasm. A routine scamper around the house involves broken furniture and a terrified cat. Since Bo hates to be left alone, the gregarious mouse follows Michael everywhere (even to the bathroom). He tends to take over the boy's bed, his computer, and his games with friends. After sneaking away without his pet, Michael relents and apologizes, but he lays down some rules for their future together. In this droll picture book, Long, creator of the comical Wing Wing Brothers books and the Geisel Award-winning Up! Tall! And High! (2012), features a pet as large, lovable, and trouble-prone as Clifford the Big Red Dog. Michael's succinct, deadpan narration perfectly sets up the visual humor in the digital illustrations energetic line drawings brightened with color washes. Fun for reading aloud and sharing with groups of children.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A colossal mouse dwarfs his young master in this romp from Geisel Award-winner Long (Up! Tall! and High!), who taps into the same sort of comedy inherent in the relationship between Norman Bridwell's Clifford and Emily Elizabeth. As Michael introduces his mouse, Bo, there's a humorous disconnect between Long's understated text and how the action plays out in his energetic cartoons. "I love watching him scamper around the house," says Michael as Bo careens wildly through the living room, obliviously smashing into furniture and toppling objects. When the devoted pet's relentless, invasive presence finally wears Michael down ("I can't even go to the bathroom without him tagging along"), he leaves Bo home for once, but quickly regrets the decision. The two strike a compromise, signing a contract that allows for both time together and apart. Readers with friends or siblings who don't quite understand the idea of personal space will empathize with Michael's situation, while also enjoying the story's broad slapstick humor and emotional peaks and valleys. Ages 3-5. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Michael's pet is a very big mouse named Bo, who is approximately three times Michael's size. The two friends spend all of their time together. The boy loves watching his mouse run through the house, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. He even loves when Bo gluttonously eats everything in sight. The problem is that Bo wants to be with Michael constantly, which has several annoying drawbacks, not limited to public embarrassment and a lack of privacy. When Michael finally gets away from Bo, he comes to realize how much he misses him. The two comes up with a list of boundaries, ensuring that they have quality time together and alone. The digitally rendered illustrations are overlayed with a paper texture. Kids who have undoubtedly had their own overly zealous friends will identify with Michael. This amusing story will be a hit.-Laura Hunter, Mount Laurel Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2014. 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
Michael loves his oversize mouse friend, Bo, but finds his attachment and needy behavior challenging. Ultimately the duo creates a five-point contract setting limits such as "The bathroom is not a play area" and "We both sleep in our own beds." The story is didactic, but zany cartoon-style vignettes back up the narrator's exasperation at the attention-demanding, mess-making behemoth. (c) Copyright 2014. 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.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An end to the travails of being loved too much is negotiated like peace talks.Michael and Bo are close friends. Michael is a young boy, and Bo is of the genus lab mouseall white and pinkon steroids. Bo is hyperactive and a slob and a hog, but he also radiates the ineffable charm of the drunken uncle who puts a lampshade on his head. Like the drunken uncle, a little bit can go a long way, and though Michael loves Bo, he can't catch a break from him either (even in the de rigueur bathroom moment). Fed up, Michael locks Bo in the house and goes off to play with his friendsall of whom wonder why Bo, their favorite mouse, isn't in tow. Michaels misses the beast, too, though things have to change. So Michael returns home and draws up a contract stipulating certain behavioral constraints. Michael's need for personal space is certainly understandable, but to make it a legal issue drains a critical measure of warmth from the relationship. Perhaps it is best to stand back a bit and read the book as a cautionary tale: Friends, like pets (except cats and ball pythons), don't demand attention so much as they require it. Where the big mouse/big mouth comes into the picture is a mystery, unless it's just there for the obvious joke. The color and texture of the artwork resembles a piece of cake one might find tucked deep in the freezer.Oddly sterile for a book that's all about love. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
