The Mousehunter

Reviewed by Natalie Tsang for TeensReadToo.com

Twelve-year-old Emiline Orelia is the best mousekeeper in Old Town, but wants more than anything to become a mousehunter.

While she's cleaning the cages of the Blinking Mouse of Bobo and the Rook-winged Mouse of Scarlet Island, she dreams of accomplishing greater things than maintaining mice. Even though she works for Isaiah Lovelock, the most famous mouse collector in the world, there aren't many opportunities to make a name for herself.

When Mousebeard, the fiercest pirate in all seventeen seas, meddles one too many times with Lovelock, her employer hires Devlin Drewshank, a buccaneer, to capture him. Emiline impresses Drewshank with her mousing abilities and wins a place upon his ship. show more However, instead of starting her own adventure, she gets roped into an exciting but dangerous conspiracy of illegal mouse trading, deadly curses, and lots of double-crossing.

Alex Milway's THE MOUSEHUNTER is a magical romp through pirate ships and brigand-ridden cities. In Old Town, the Dead Collector, Mr. Droob, has an assistant to help take care of all the bodies that wash ashore.

Though this book is filled with mice, there's nothing mousy about it! Milway creates a fantastic world where people live and die for rare breeds of mice. The novel is populated with an eccentric cast of human characters, from the beautiful and manipulative Lady Beatrice Pettifogger to the brilliant and slightly bonkers Algernon Mountjack.

Young readers will love the resourceful and hardworking Emiline, her trusty grey mouse, Portly, and her best friend and fellow mouser, Scratcher. In addition, each chapter is introduced with an entry of Isaiah Lovelock's The Mousehunter's Almanac and features many of Alex Milway's own illustrations.

Five Stars! show less

In a world where there are thousands of species of mice (some useful, some scary, some very rare and precious), Emiline dreams of being a mousehunter and traveling the globe to find new and interesting mice. When she's given the chance to join a privateer ship hunting for the dreaded pirate Mousebeard, she jumps at the chance and so begins her tale of adventure.

An action-packed story with an interesting premise, I only wish the character development and world-building had matched the imaginative mouse development. I'd hand this one to middle-grade fantasy-adventure fans and it'll be a hit with anyone who likes small, furry creatures. A sequel's out in England and I suspect we can eventually expect it here in the states.

Read more on my show more blog:
http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/02/book-review-mousehunter.html show less

Densely written pirate-like fantasy about hardworking Emiline who dreams of globe- trotting the world as a mousehunter, rather than a “lowly” mousekeeper as she is currently. Hard to get through, with all the fantastic names and destinations. I like the hardworking main character and her relationship with best friend, Scratcher and Portly, (her companion mouse.)

From Booklist
In a society that values collecting and trading mice above all else, being a mousekeeper (and hopefully some day a full-fledged mousehunter) carries its share of prestige. This is especially true for Emiline, the mousekeeper of the most famous mousehunter in Old Town, Isiah Lovelock. To be clear, in this world mice aren’t simply squeaky little nuisances. There’s the Sharpclaw Mouse, whose calamity-inspiring claws can slice through just about anything; and the Magnetical Mouse, valued by seafarers for its ever northward-pointing nose; and, most rare, the Golden Mouse, whose hair of purest gold has tempted many, and caused the Mousehunting Federation to ban its capture on pain of death. The story follows Emiline as she show more joins a high-seas mission to hunt down the dastardly pirate, Mousebeard. While Emiline’s adventure has its share of twists and thrills (some earned, some a little too convenient), the imaginative panoply of prized critters is the true hook, aided and abetted by Milway’s fanciful illustrations and his strong, persistent sense of quirkiness. A quite different and just plain fun yarn ripe for a sequel. Grades 4-7. --Ian Chipman show less