MARTY MOOSE

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night keeps this plucky mouse from his deliveries.

Having grown up hearing the tales of his intrepid Great-Aunt Ada, aka “the GREATEST MAILMOUSE WHO EVER LIVED,” Marty Moose is determined to follow in her footsteps. (The book’s opening pages explain that Marty’s unusual name is the result of a birth certificate error.) He sallies forth on his first day of work. Unfortunately, a prankster in the mailroom has slipped two packages that don’t belong into Marty’s pack. Initially all goes well, and though Marty gets lost while making deliveries in a rabbit warren, he befriends Nibbles Frizzby, a bunny best described as a “complete and utter kook,” with a personality that’s equal parts trickster and wise fool. When Marty delivers the prankster’s packages to a pair of feuding toads, he finds himself in dire circumstances. Now Marty must not only escape with his life, but also find the blackguard who’s tricked him. Plenty of potty humor and a justified but still mean-spirited ending threaten to waylay the book’s earnest premise, but Marty’s good humor and Nibbles’ genuine hilarity do much to alleviate such concerns. Powell’s expressive and cartoonish line drawings also bring to life both Marty’s own emotional roller coaster and the chaos his adventures unleash.

Postal pranks and mailroom mischief make for a series starter worth writing home about.