Birthday Mice!

October 1, 2002
When a mouse turns two, friends and family throw a cowboy theme party in Birthday Mice!, the fifth title in the Holiday Mice series by Bethany Roberts, illus. by Doug Cushman.

December 1, 2002
PreS-At his second birthday party, a cowboy-costumed mouse creates havoc while galloping around on his wooden horse. A gigantic balloon pops, his horse breaks, and his birthday cake is smashed. Friends save the day by substituting "cowboy vittles" (flapjacks) for the cake, and a kind squirrel offers to be the birthday mouse's "horse." This is a difficult book to read aloud; the rhyming text doesn't scan, and sometimes the rhymed word doesn't appear until pages later. Cushman's animals are personable, but twice he places the protagonist in four panels across a spread, which is bound to confuse preschoolers, who will see four separate mice. And children will wonder how, in one set of panels, a tiny pair of cowboy boots is made to fit on the mouse's enormous feet. Not a first purchase.-Eileen Sheridan, Bridgeport Public Library, CT

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2003
In this fifth holiday book featuring these mice characters, elaborate preparations set the stage for a young mouse's cowboy-themed birthday celebration. When the frivolity gets out of hand, the revelers regroup and clean up, and the party goes on. Festive watercolors convey the energy lacking in the forced rhyming text.

(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)