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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Emotionally brutal. Scarred me for life. Contained vocabulary that I struggled with even as a "gifted" teenager. (I had no idea what a kingfisher is.)
I love this book.
I love this book.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Oddly good. It’s so sad when they get broken
It was a good book, but I liked how the mouse kid always took things as he thought they were. Like he didn't know what they were, so innocent.
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
This is a book I remember from my childhood; I returned to it by random chance. Re-reading it as an adult I still enjoyed the talking animals and toys, the pathos and whimsy; but this is a work of considerable depth and humanity.
The protagonists are the mouse and his child, a set of tin toys enjoyed for a few years and then discarded in a junk yard. Partly repaired by a mysterious tramp, they embark on a quest for "self-winding" and to find their friends from their toyshop display. Temporarily enslaved, and then pursued, by the malevolent (and eventually redeemed) Manny Rat, they meet a fortune-telling frog, an avant-garde crow theatre troupe, a ponderous turtle philosopher, and many other colorful characters in their quest.
It is a profound and by turns melancholy and delightful, and a children's classic not just for children.
The protagonists are the mouse and his child, a set of tin toys enjoyed for a few years and then discarded in a junk yard. Partly repaired by a mysterious tramp, they embark on a quest for "self-winding" and to find their friends from their toyshop display. Temporarily enslaved, and then pursued, by the malevolent (and eventually redeemed) Manny Rat, they meet a fortune-telling frog, an avant-garde crow theatre troupe, a ponderous turtle philosopher, and many other colorful characters in their quest.
It is a profound and by turns melancholy and delightful, and a children's classic not just for children.
Odd little dark children's story. Worth reading.
Ostensibly a children's book, this book has a wonderful sense of weirdness within a great deal of darkness. If you are a lover of SF/F/H, you really ought to read it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Mouse and His Child by Russel Hoban was first published in 1967 with illustrations by Hoban's wife, Lillian. It's worth getting a copy with the original artwork, which is delightful.
The Mouse and His Child is a book that hit me with a deep sense of pathos when I first read it as a child. It is ostensibly a children's book, with talking animals and talking clockwork toys, but at least the first half of the book is unflinchingly grim. The mouse and his child of the title are a clockwork toy, dancing in the window of a toy store at the start of the book. Accompanying these two in the store window are a clockwork elephant, a clockwork seal, and a doll's house. Through all their vicissitudes, the mouse and his child are forever yearning for a return to their initial idyllic existence in the toy store, where together with the elephant as mother to the mouse child and seal as his sister, they would constitute a perfect "family."
Bought as a Christmas trinket, the mouse and his child are subsequently broken by a cat when the mouse child cries for his lost family, thereby breaking one of the cardinal laws of the clockwork-toy universe. A tramp rescues them from the garbage and repairs them somewhat, and sets them off into the world with the advice, "Be tramps!" There follows a series of unrelentingly harsh incidents involving the mouse and his child, in the filth of the town dump, in a swamp, in a pond, and so on. Frequently, they are present at scenes of violence, death, and destruction. The mouse and his child are broken apart, rusted, and degraded.
The boss of the dump, Manny Rat, becomes a sworn enemy of the mouse and his child when they escape from servitude in a gang of clockwork-toy slaves under the rats. Along the way, however, the mouse and his child do make friends: the philosopher musk rat, Uncle Frog, Uncle Kingfisher, Uncle Bittern, and so on. The second half of the book is much less grim, and The Mouse and His Child ends as a story of success and redemption: their long-held dreams finally come true with the help of their friends. Even the evil Manny Rat is redeemed.
Reading this book again as an adult, I still appreciated its pathos, though it didn't affect me as deeply as it did as a child. Yes, the world can be an ugly, dirty vicious place—but, still, there are elements of love and hope and joy, and the good will eventually triumph, as it does in The Mouse and His Child. Nevertheless, of all the children's books I read as a child and again as an adult, The Mouse and His Child is my favourite. There's something magical about this story, even now. Hoban's writing is lovely, and his wife's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment. In my view, The Mouse and His Child is a deep, significant book, for adults as well as children.
The Mouse and His Child is a book that hit me with a deep sense of pathos when I first read it as a child. It is ostensibly a children's book, with talking animals and talking clockwork toys, but at least the first half of the book is unflinchingly grim. The mouse and his child of the title are a clockwork toy, dancing in the window of a toy store at the start of the book. Accompanying these two in the store window are a clockwork elephant, a clockwork seal, and a doll's house. Through all their vicissitudes, the mouse and his child are forever yearning for a return to their initial idyllic existence in the toy store, where together with the elephant as mother to the mouse child and seal as his sister, they would constitute a perfect "family."
Bought as a Christmas trinket, the mouse and his child are subsequently broken by a cat when the mouse child cries for his lost family, thereby breaking one of the cardinal laws of the clockwork-toy universe. A tramp rescues them from the garbage and repairs them somewhat, and sets them off into the world with the advice, "Be tramps!" There follows a series of unrelentingly harsh incidents involving the mouse and his child, in the filth of the town dump, in a swamp, in a pond, and so on. Frequently, they are present at scenes of violence, death, and destruction. The mouse and his child are broken apart, rusted, and degraded.
The boss of the dump, Manny Rat, becomes a sworn enemy of the mouse and his child when they escape from servitude in a gang of clockwork-toy slaves under the rats. Along the way, however, the mouse and his child do make friends: the philosopher musk rat, Uncle Frog, Uncle Kingfisher, Uncle Bittern, and so on. The second half of the book is much less grim, and The Mouse and His Child ends as a story of success and redemption: their long-held dreams finally come true with the help of their friends. Even the evil Manny Rat is redeemed.
Reading this book again as an adult, I still appreciated its pathos, though it didn't affect me as deeply as it did as a child. Yes, the world can be an ugly, dirty vicious place—but, still, there are elements of love and hope and joy, and the good will eventually triumph, as it does in The Mouse and His Child. Nevertheless, of all the children's books I read as a child and again as an adult, The Mouse and His Child is my favourite. There's something magical about this story, even now. Hoban's writing is lovely, and his wife's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment. In my view, The Mouse and His Child is a deep, significant book, for adults as well as children.
Wow. What a beautiful and satisfying read. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this book; probably something sad but poignant, as many of these sorts of books I read as a child were. I did get a bit of that, but I also got a lot of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland whimsy, a compelling story, and a deeply heartwarming and satisfying ending. Full of lovely characters, intriguing ideas, and--at the risk of sounding twee--plenty of heart, this was such a wonderful read. Definitely going to need to won this for myself.
A wonderful tale for children. One of those "important" books that wasn't necessarily my type of book, but enjoyable nonetheless. Upon the recommendation in "A Thousand Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List" by James Mustich.