Mouse House
by Rumer Godden
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Description
There is never any room for Bonnie, the baby mouse, in the flower pot, so she goes looking for a new mouse house.Tags
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Mary is a girl who was given Mouse House, a jewelry box, as a present. There are two dressed-up mice dolls in it. In the cellar of her house a large family of mice live in a crowded flower pot. The youngest, Bonnie, was always getting pushed out onto the floor. One night she bravely goes exploring and discovers the Mouse House, only to be trapped inside. Mother Mouse realizes that one of her children is missing; Father Mouse doesn't and tells her that she can't count. Males do not come off well in this story: Father Mouse is more interested in the food he squirrels away than finding suitable accommodations for his family---if the children need them then they should find them. Women and girls search for solutions and find them.
This children's book, originally published in 1957, contains charming illustrations drawn by Adrienne Adams to accompany Rumer Godden's delightful tale of a young girl's jewelry box and the mouse family who repurpose it.. Rereading it brought to mind fond memories of curling up in my favorite little cubby and reading of a character, Bonnie Mouse, smaller than me, in fact, the smallest in her family who has the wherewithal, bravery, gumption and a little good fortune to change her circumstances and make a better life for herself and her family.
Very cute - and as these kind of stories go, positively reasonable. Everything the mice do is within the realms of the possible (ok, aside from speaking - but that's only between themselves, not to humans). And the girl's actions are similarly reasonable. Cute, nice, not sickeningly sweet. Not much to it, but it is definitely a kids' book and for that class it's well above average.
Ex-lib. Dicken School library (Ann Arbor)
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Author Information
88+ Works 15,206 Members
Margaret Rumer Godden was born Dec. 10, 1907, in Sussex, England. She was nine months old when her family moved to India, where her father ran a shipping line. She returned to London at age 20 to learn how to teach dance to children, and opened a school back in India. Returning to England while she was pregnant, she wrote her first book, "Chinese show more Puzzle," published in 1936. Her marriage to a stockbroker, Laurence Sinclair Foster, ended in 1941, leaving her penniless. In an effort to pay off her former husband's debts, Godden moved her family into a mountain cottage where she ran a school, made herbal teas for sale, and wrote books. Another novel of India, "The River," published in 1949, was one of her most acclaimed books and was made into a film by Jean Renoir in 1951. She returned to England to stay in 1945. Rumer Godden was the author of more than 60 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry, plays and non-fiction. She published her 21st novel, "Cromartie vs. the God Shiva," in 1997. Rumer Godden died a year later on November 8, 1998, in Thornhill, Scotland, at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Mouse House
- Original publication date
- 1957
- People/Characters
- Mary; Bonnie; Mother Mouse; Father Mouse
- Important places
- Mouse House; the cellar
- Dedication
- For
MARY GROVES,
because Mouse House belonged to her - First words
- Once upon a time there was a little mouse house.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)When she had thought that, I think she could guess the rest, and that is how she came to tell me, and I to tell you, the story of Mouse House.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 210
- Popularity
- 154,584
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.22)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 6
