THERE'S A MOUSE IN MY HOUSE

A large polar bear who lives in a very ordinary human-looking house finds that a mouse has moved in and won’t leave.

In rhyming text, this sequel to There’s a Bear on My Chair (2016) features the same two animals at odds again. The small mouse wears a patterned ski sweater and has moved in, lock, stock, and barrel, hanging pictures on the walls (one of a big hunk of Swiss cheese and the other of himself), playing soft rock on a boom box, and eating everything in sight (except for “one pistachio”). He causes all sorts of trouble. “He’s made my bathtub overflow! / It flooded the room down below, / so now I’m soaked from head to toe. / That’s it! / I’m done! / He has to go!” The last three lines are printed in larger and larger type to indicate the bear’s frustration at the drops raining down from above. But when the mouse’s rodent friends, all dressed in wildly patterned sweaters and party hats of their own, come by bringing treats and fun, the bear eventually gets into the groove and decides “Hey…these mice are nice!” There’s a bit of Seussian fun in the illustrations as more and more mice show up in the colorful cartoons, and once again, Collins makes the most of the difference between the little mouse and the burly bear. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Another improbable but amusing story of animal friendship.