MOUSE AND MOLE: A WINTER WONDERLAND

Yee follows his Geisel Honoree Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends (2009) with a four-chapter story told through controlled text and charming litho-pencil–and-gouache illustrations characterized by gentle humor and great warmth in the characters’ relationship, if not in their snowy surroundings. Mouse is delighted by a fresh snowfall and rushes to her friend’s house to invite him out to play. Mole thinks that “[b]ed is the place to be on a day like this,” and is none too pleased to be disturbed. Undaunted, Mouse ventures out into the “winter wonderland” and builds a Sno-Mole to keep her company. Bored Mole eventually joins her and later builds a Sno-Mouse of his own. After much fun together: “I feel like a Mouse-cicle,” says Mouse, and Mole responds, “I feel like a Mole-cicle.” The bundled-up friends against the wintry background make an endearing complement to the quiet humor of the story. The vignettes are sprinkled throughout, breaking up the lines of text and giving young eyes a place to rest as they work. A tea-and-cookie retreat provides a cozy ending to a splendid beginning reader. (Early reader. 5-8)