Ls5603 Mouse Match

Young, Ed. Mouse Match: A Chinese Folktale. San Diego: Silver Whistle, 1997.

ISBN: 0152014535

Papa mouse and Mama mouse want only the best husband for their wonderful daughter. Papa mouse journeys far and wide, offering his daughters hand in marriage to the most “powerful one in the world.” He offers her hand in marriage to the sun, the wind, the great mountain. They all declined and the great mountain tells Papa that he thinks mice are the most powerful, because they dig the holes underneath him and he is slowly crumbling. Papa returns home and tells Mama the news and they find a suitable match. They marry their daughter to a fine young mouse and learn they had to not only “look – but also to see.”

Written and illustrated by Ed Young, Mouse Match is a wonderful story on the power of the familiar: one may look far and wide to find what they want only to be greeted by it when they return home. The artwork is superb and delightfully linear. The book is constructed like an accordion, pull the pages and the story and its illustrations can be seen as a cohesive whole. The rendering of the animal characters in stark, silhouetted black make them stand out from the background, making the characters, especially Papa mouse focal points of the illustrations. The reverse of the artwork is the story told in Chinese characters, an interesting idea that is sure to fascinate children.

“Everything about Young's retelling works together to convey the joy of recognition,” states the review in the October, 1997 edition of School Library Journal. If children enjoyed this tale, they might try other variants of the mouse bride tale such as The Mouse Bride: A Mayan Tale by Judith Dupre and the Mouse Bride: A Tale from Finland by Linda Allen.