The Attic Mice - Hardcover

This unusual fantasy presents a very tiny horse chestnut whose sentiments are reported to readers and a family of mice who live in the attic of a deserted dollhouse. The mice are delighted to find the chestnut because it fits their scale of things and is useful as a ball, a footstool, a paperweight, or a doorstop. Most of the book concerns the mouse family's lifestyle and their entertaining adventures. The chestnut re-enters the story at the end, when the family uses it as the Baby Jesus in their creche. Some may find this touching, others will not. The book concludes with a condescending moral: even a tiny horse chestnut can be loved in a small way if it can make itself useful. While children will enjoy the adventures and the descriptions of the mouse lifestyle, they may be put off by the expressions of adult sensibilities. Pen-and-ink drawings are scattered throughout and add interest to the book. For delightful, straightforward animal or Lilliputian fantasy, O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Atheneum, 1971) and Norton's The Borrowers (HBJ, 1953) are hard to beat. --Virginia Golodetz, St. Michael's College, Winooski, VT
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