By the Light of the Moon by Sheridan Cain Illustrated by Gaby Hansen

from goodreads

2.5 stars

This is another middle child pick. Gotta love library day at school!

Synopsis

This book is about a mother mouse who is tucking her little one into bed. A mole comes along and says the farmer is going to plough the field in the morning so she shouldn't put her little one there. The mother then goes around trying to find a nice cozy bed for her little one.

My Thoughts

Positive first. I loved the illustrations. Each picture seemed to be bathed in the light of the moon. I loved that the pictures seemed to have that soft light and colouring of a bright moonlit night. The mice were super cute, though a bit oddly shaped for a mouse. The pictures made me want to lie in the middle of a meadow under the stars on a warm summer's night.

As for the story itself. Ugh! To my girls it was just another story. It did not really engage them or invoke any kind of reaction. As for me... it invoked a lot of reaction. I felt like yelling to the mouse mom "If you think this is the best place for your baby for heaven's sake leave him there! You are the mom! You know what is the best for your baby! Don't keep moving him around when he is clearly tired and stop listening to all the busy bodies who don't know your child or your situation!"

As mothers, or parents for that matter, we hear a lot of interesting advice from a lot of people who generally mean well. This book just made that loathing feeling of listening to unsolicited advise envelope me.

From the cover I thought that this was going to be a great book about love and tender feelings between parent and child. It was not that at all. I don't even know what the moral of the story is or why kids would enjoy it. I don't know if all the different animals coming to the mother mouses aid is supposed to be funny or not. I don't know if the kids are supposed to get the message that they know what is best for themselves, as the mother mouse never stands up for herself and her position. It could be a way to find out how other animals live, but there are better ways of doing that.

Perhaps I am reading too much into a children's book of less than 35 pages, but this one made me annoyed.

So avoid if possible, or if you can't avoid it don't try to read too much into it. It will just make you go crazy!

Happy Reading! See you Thursday!