All Things Kid Lit: Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends

Picture book pick of the week:

Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends
by Wong Herbert Yee
Houghton Mifflin
Grades 1-3
48 pages

Whenever Mouse and Mole go bird watching, all the birds fly away. Perhaps “Mousebird” and “Molebird” will have better luck observing the feathered creatures.

From Booklist:

In their latest round of endearing adventures, best pals Mouse and Mole suit up excitedly for a day of springtime bird-watching, but before they can focus their binoculars, each of their subjects flies away. Compromising and cooperating are the themes as the friends find elaborate, creative solutions to their problems and make a final project that celebrates their individual talents. Once again, transitional readers will enjoy the well-paced text’s wordplay (including lots of puns); the gentle, realistic friendship conflicts; and the ink-and-watercolor artwork that captures the story’s humor, action, and feeling.

You might also like:

• Abracadabra!: Magic with Mouse and Mole by Wong Herbert Yee
• A Brand-New Day with Mouse and Mole by Wong Herbert Yee 
• Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan 

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Kid Lit News:

With a Reluctant Young Reader, the Grosser the Better

Los Angeles Times

December 14, 2009

"Being a book lover and a journalist, I always imagined I'd take the literary high road as a parent and that my boy would want to read (or be read) what I had as a kid: Charlotte's Web, The Giving Tree, and other wholesome classics. I never thought I'd have a reluctant reader for a child, yet that's the position I'm in with my 6-year-old son, who likes books but struggles with reading and writing."

Eloise, the Storybook Heroine, Gets Her Due at Plaza Hotel

Los Angeles Times

December 11, 2009

Even Eloise herself wouldn't be bored by the Plaza Hotel's latest tribute to the restless, 6-year-old storybook heroine who made her fictional home in the New York City landmark: a 2,100-square-foot pink shrine to all things Eloise.