Synopsis
Baby mouse is missing! Mother mouse can't find him anywhere.
And then, to make matters worse — a big, scary gorilla charges out of the rainforest!
Will mother mouse escape the gorilla? And where is her baby?
Jeanne Willis's rhythmic text and Tony Ross's playful illustrations enliven this suspenseful chase.
Children's Literature
Before the story begins, we meet Baby Mouse, pacifier tight in mouth, with his anxious mother next to his empty stroller on the opposite page. For he has "gone missing," and she sets off to find him. Up the mountain and around the rainforest she searches desperately. Suddenly an enormous gorilla rears up in front of her, bellowing "Stop!" Fearing he will "...mince me and mash me, And crunch me up for lunch," she runs away, first all the way to China, repeating her cry, with the gorilla after her. When she reaches America, he is catching up. Again she cries for help, and again he bellows "Stop!" This time she runs to Australia, still squeaking her cry for help, then on to the Arctic, with the gorilla still in pursuit. When she is too tired to run any more, the frightening gorilla comes closer and closer...only to deliver her baby safely to her. She is glad then to let the kind fellow take them safely home. Ross manages to keep the imaginative visual tale lighthearted while creating a frightening gorilla and filling the front of the jacket. By contrast, his pastel scenes are rather gentle. They offer only hints of the geographic locations, like a Chinese pagoda and panda or an Australian koala. The mouse's frantic dashing about in her old-fashioned dress adds to the comic excitement.