Kate Spohn

When Lucy, the mouse, visits a house she finds two artists who are sisters. However, the sisters do not welcome her to stay. Instead, they carry Lucy back to the woods.
Then Lucy tells her friends about the house and brings them back with her. When they decide to eat the cookies that the sisters baked, they were sent back to the woods and told not to come back. Lucy and her friends then told their families about the cookies. "The word was out."
This time, when the mice came, the sisters show more welcomed them and allowed them to stay. The mice posed while the sisters wrote stories about them. The stories then spread and "even households that were not mouse-friendly became devoted mouse fans."
Kate Spohn continues to impress me with her writing. By Word of Mouse demonstrates how quickly word can spread. It's also a great story for animal lovers of all kind.
I found this book to be very engaging as I read it to a toddler. The young girl would yell out favorite lines from the book such as "and don't come back!" The interaction the book sparked was incredible. show less

Lucy was a very persistent mouse who ultimately was able to achieve her goal of finding a forever home. It wasn't easy. She didn't quite understand why the owners of the house, two sisters, kept bringing her back into the woods. Lucy kept coming back, and she even brought company with her, other mice. The two sisters eventually welcomed Lucy and her friends to live in their home, and they enjoyed their company so much that one of the sisters decided to write stories about her pleasant show more experience living with mice. Her stories were so loving that people who hated mice had them in their household as just another family member. This book is about persistence and why having an open mind and being different is so important. By being different and trying new things and then sharing those experiences, you can influence others and change the perception of something that may have seemed unimaginable at one time. This book did a great job of communicating those points in a way that isn't too serious, yet more welcoming for a child. show less

"By Word of Mouse," is a story about a mouse named Lucy that wanted to live in a real house. She decided to move in a blue house with twin sisters. The sisters saw the mouse in their home and brought her back into the woods and said, "Now don't you come back!" Of course, Lucy had no idea what she had meant. She thought that they had brought her back to visit her family. Lucy then brought along her friends with her where they played on sculptures and ate cookies. "What a wonderful home", I'm show more sure they thought in their little brains. The sisters did not like that they were eating their cookies so again, they brought them back to the woods. When the mice came back, they brought the entire family! The sisters were exhausted from sending the mice away so instead, she made them matchbox beds. Home sweet home. This time they even got their own plate of cookies and they lived happily ever after in the blue beautiful home. I think this book will give children a different outlook about having these little furry creatures in their home. After reading this book, I feel that "even housholds that were not mouse-friendly became devoted mouse fans". Instead of viewing them as disgusting, they may view them as little guys that just want a comfortable home. This book won the Caldecott Award for its beautiful yet simple illustration. This book is cute and shows children how to be kind and love all living things. show less

Two sisters who were artist, lived in the woods. There was a family of mice who also lived in the woods. Lucy, the youngest mouse heard about the sisters and all of the beautiful creations they made and wanted to live with them. Lucy tried three times to move into their house, but each time the sisters did not want anything to do with the family of mice. Finally, the sisters accepted the mice into their home because of their kind and caring spirits and they all lived happily ever after show more eating sugar lace cookies.
I think the fact that two artist live in the house and this book won a Caldecott award is a great way of foreshadowing the life of the actual author of the book. Spohn had the honor to meet the first recipient of the Caldecott Medal in 1938 and the recipients sister. When Spohn was a teenager she actually got to garden for the elderly sisters and the three of them shared their love for art and animals. The artwork showed Spohn's passion and dedication to art in this book. The pictures looked like they were painted with finger paint and paint brushes. One major thing that interested me was the fact that she drew all of the mice the exact same way, but changed some of the colors. These slight color changes did not occur often. However, because of her slightly changing those colors, each mouse had its own personality even though they all looked the same. I found that amusing as the reader. Also, to draw the same exact mouse, the same exact way, multiple times cannot be an easy task. Overall, the artwork in this book brought out the theme of enjoying the presence of animals and allowing them to have a special place in our hearts. show less