Mr. Postmouse's Rounds (Mr. Postmouse #1)
by Marianne Dubuc (Author) Marianne Dubuc (Illustrator)
In this bustling picture book, Mr. Postmouse carefully loads up his wagon and sets off to make the day's mail deliveries to all the animals on his route.
Via cross-section drawings, readers get to peer inside each home Mr. Postmouse stops at, and every one is different, depending on the animals who live there. For example, there's a hole in the middle of the kitchen floor of the Rabbits' home that leads underground to where they sleep and eat. Mr. Snake's superlong home has heat lamps throughout its length. The Birds live in a tree house, and Mrs. Octopus in a sunken shipwreck. Mr. Bear's house has a beehive on the roof with an attached pipe that brings honey straight into the kitchen. Furnishings in Mrs. Fly's home are stuck to the ceiling. Award-winning author and illustrator Marianne Dubuc is a master at clever, specific details in her drawings to bring each fully imagined animal and dwelling to life on the page. Though more whimsical and tongue-in-cheek than true, this is a terrific book for teaching children about the characteristics and diversity of animal life, including their habitats, their needs, how they live and what they eat. And it's also loads of fun. With so much going on across every spread, children will love poring over the pages on their own, discovering something new every time. Children are also likely to be inspired to create their own made-up stories about what activities are going on in each of the animal's homes in the book.
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Publishers Weekly
In a story that, like Richard Scarry's work, offers an abundance of curiosity-piquing domestic details to consider, readers follow a small mouse postal carrier making his rounds. A gentle silliness pervades Dubuc's (The Bus Ride) tidily drafted cartoons, but coy references to fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and animal biology are also apparent. A cutaway view of Mr. Bear's home reveals a rooftop beehive and a calendar that appears to be counting down until hibernation time. And is that Goldilocks he's enjoying porridge with? Mr. Snake's skinny dwelling stretches across five pages, with heat lamps hanging throughout, hinting at his ectothermic nature. (Also, he evidently has swallowed an automobile.) Underground homes belonging to Mrs. Mole, an ant colony, and the Rabbits reveal burrows filled with digging implements, sweet treats, and bunk beds. There's some understated humor in Dubuc's captionlike text--"This one is a bit worrying," she says of the package delivered to a chicken coop (a fox's snout, feet, and tail poke out from the box)--but it's the sweetly and smartly imagined details of her animal neighborhood that make the story so delightful. Ages 3-7. (Aug.)
Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2--Who will deliver Mrs. Turtle's new roller skates? Who could possibly be brave enough to swim past a shark and deliver a package to a clownfish? A family of stinky skunks needs their air freshener, but how will it ever reach them? Mr. Postmouse, of course! Follow Mr. Postmouse as he delivers the mail: all the way from the post office, through the forest village, past the dragon's den, to the tip-top of a mountain and back again. Filled with thoughtful, clever details and whimsical, folksy illustrations, Mr. Postmouse's Rounds will delight older and younger readers alike as they peer into imaginative cut-away views of the underground world of rabbits, turtles, dragons, bats, penguins, and other animal friends. Best of all, there's a surprise for Mr. Postmouse when he returns home at the end of the story. Imaginations will feast on the lively vignettes and playful personalities of these creatures and their special residences. While the text remains minimal and easy to follow, the main draw is the artwork, which will have independent readers poring over page after page of visual glee. Simple text and highly detailed illustrations are interwoven to create scenes that will spark discussions, fostering vocabulary development and narrative skills. VERDICT Delightful and charming characters at every turn make this an exceptional addition to any picture book collection.--Natalie Braham, Denver Public Library
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Review quotes
... Dubuc has created a tiny, perfect, mouse-sized universe.—Montreal Review of Books
JUV002000 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | General
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