Mouseboat

by Larissa Theule (Author) Abigail Halpin (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

A lyrical, soothing story about new beginnings, even in the darkest times, Mouseboat is a powerful tribute to finding your way home again.

The wind is your voice.

You whisper to me.

A young girl feels lost after the death of her mother. Dad tries his best to manage everything alone, but things just aren't the same. When they take a trip to their lake house, the girl longs to feel a connection to her mom, and so she takes out the small mouseboat that she and her mom built together. And somehow, in the wind and the rain, protected by the mouseboat, she finds her mother's love.

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Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

A soothing, reassuring look at loss and life. 

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
With sensitivity and immediacy, this prescient picture book charts a cathartic journey through grief to hope.

Publishers Weekly

With spare, heartfelt text, Theule invites readers into a narrating child's deepest feelings about missing their deceased mother and finding a way to feel at home again after her death. As the child and their father, who read as East Asian, arrive at their home near water's edge, the child suggests that their mother's voice on the wind can't be understood, and expresses a yearning ("The quilt you made smells like you.// ... Dad does everything different"). When emotional searching keeps sleep at bay, the child races out of the house to take the small craft labeled "Faye & Mama's Mouseboat" out onto the water, despite an approaching storm. Adrift in the wind, spray, and thunder, a line reveals the previously missing presence ("You're here!"), which gives way to the comforting, longed-for voice and reassuring words. Halpin's crisp mixed-media art depicts a lush green woodland and brilliant blue water that shimmers, roils, laps, and crashes in dramatic scenes that mimic the child's emotional journey. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

★ Figurative language in first person pairs with abstract watercolor illustrations to make a breathtaking lyrical picture book that beautifully portrays Faye's sorrow and longing. . . . This book will remind grieving readers that loved ones are waiting for them with patience and understanding. —BCCB, starred review
Larissa Theule
Larissa Theule holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the author of the picture books Kafka and the Doll, Born to Ride: A Story About Bicycle Face, and A Way with Wild Things. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Please visit larissatheule.com.

Abigail Halpin has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Her illustrations blend traditional and digital media, mixing watercolor, ink, pencil, and collage. When not drawing, she can usually be found with her nose in a book, in front of her sewing machine, or out of doors exploring.

Please visit theodesign.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780593327357
Lexile Measure
300
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication date
March 28, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039030 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Death & Dying
JUV013060 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Parents
JUV041020 - Juvenile Fiction | Transportation | Boats, Ships, & Underwater Craft
Library of Congress categories
Picture books
Mothers and daughters
Grief
Consolation
Loss

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