#20 – Library Mouse a World to Explore

  Library Mouse a World to Explore

Written by: Daniel Kirk

Illustrated by: Daniel Kirk

Scholastic

2010

30 pages

Fantasy Book

            Library Mouse a World to Explore is all about two mice, Sarah and Sam, exploring all of the interesting things in a library. Sam represents all the logical parts of reading. He teaches Sarah all about research and how to find new information. Sarah represents the fun side of reading. She finds places around the world very interesting and has fun learning about them in books. She reads for entertainment and excitement. She has Sam dress up like a pharaoh, fly a model airplane, and they even create their own book for the library.

            The artwork in this book is done with gouache on watercolor paper. The images are very detailed. For example, the mice have textured hair, and individual hairs can be seen. The illustrator uses proportion to show how the mice compare to their surroundings. On one page the mice have a large bookshelf towering over them. It takes up the entire page. Most of the images take up a single page, and the text is informal. A few of the illustrations are surrounded by negative space. The colors change from dull to bright to fit with the changing action. For example, while the mice are reading the colors are plain and calm. When the mice are riding in the model airplane the whole image is filled with bright yellow colors.

            This would be a great book to talk about reading in elementary classrooms. A teacher could use this book to introduce how to research topics. The students could come up with a topic that is interesting to them and do research on it. This book could also be used by librarians for motivation when they are introducing young students to the library.