Linnea Riley (1941–2020)

Linnea Riley's illustrations are bold and awesome, but the grown-up in me kept cringing at the terrible mess the mouse makes. I mean, sure it'd be fun to stomp on corn flakes and make brown sugar castles--but the mess! The mess!

A very simple tale for very small children, the story follows a little mouse in his escapades through the kitchen one night. This mouse leaves no telltale signs of his devastation (which is rather stomach turning to me). Happily, most mice leave evidence! Entertaining.

Mouse Mess

I liked the book, Mouse Mess, by Linnea Riley. The big idea in this book is a small mouse that makes a huge mess as he goes on a mission for a bed time snack. I enjoyed the rhyming words that were used to describe what the mouse wanted to eat. For example, “Crunch-crunch, he wants a cracker. Munch-munch, a cookie snacker.” The illustrations are also colorful and show the mouse with human qualities. The mouse walks upright and even takes a bath in a tea cup. Just like a child show more sleeps with a teddy-bear, the mouse falls asleep holding a stuffed animal mouse. show less

This is a funny poem with cute illustrations. My nine year old neighbor boy liked it very much, especially all the references to foods!