WHERE'S MOMMY?

The parallel adventures of a little girl, Maria, and her friend, Mouse Mouse, who realize at the very same time that their mothers have not come in to kiss them goodnight and go off to find them.

The idea of a small, usually unseen world next to ours always enchants, all the more so when a denizen of each world befriends the other. The pivotal point here: These two have kept their friendship secret. Maria is afraid her parents will get a cat; Mouse Mouse is sure her parents will move away from the humans. This is perhaps the only misstep, as readers will wonder why the friends make these assumptions (that and the fact that a baby mouse is not a “meese”), but why quibble? Simple text deftly delineates the similarities between each girl’s mommy-hunt while gloriously detailed illustrations capturing the action appear side by side or in top-and-bottom panels. Tension builds—just enough so that tots’ anxiety quickly turns to delicious anticipation as they begin to guess that maybe the mommies are going to be found…together! The moment of joint discovery is a delightful full-bleed, double-page spread of the two generations together. For those who have read Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary (2007), this is an especially satisfying culmination of the larger story.

Irresistible.