A House for a Mouse
Children Learn the Parts of Shoes
A House for a Mouse is a fun picture book centered around a cozy mouse family.
In Paul and Betty Lowery’s informative picture book A House for a Mouse, two mice grow up in a snug and sturdy home.
Mother Mouse and her two children move into a snug tennis shoe, where they have a kitchen, bedroom, dining room, den, and a swing made of shoe laces. Here, Mother Mouse pampers her children with snacks, warm socks, and bedtime stories, but she also prepares them for life. The two mice learn to cook and sew; they grow into self-sufficient adult mice, in whom their mother has instilled the good habits of prayer, helping family, and being kind and compassionate to friends. These lessons guide them until they’re sent off on their own, with their mother offering them some parting advice: “When you need a house for your children, find an old tennis shoe.”
In addition to its story of mice growing up, the book is instructive when it comes to the parts of a shoe. In a congenial tone, it combines such informational content with its lighthearted tale. And whether the illustrations are focused on the components of the shoe, the mice’s home, or the mice’s excellent manners, they are imaginative: there’s a chimney at the top of the shoe, and the laces are repurposed as a slide. Other stimulating elements appear as well, with images of cabinets and supplies, a garden, and leaves wrapping around a twig. Further, there are questions after every rhyming verse that help to clarify the book’s concepts, as well as short activities and invitations to introspection.
In the picture book A House for a Mouse, three mice find coziness and comfort in their house, which is made from a shoe.
Reviewed by
Tripti Kandari
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
