Overview
A 2010 E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor Award recipient, Denise Doyen's rollicking, rhyming tale—with moody, evocative illustrations by award-winner Barry Moser—is sure to please children AND adults.Synopsis
A cautionary tale for mice reminiscent of Carroll’s Jabberwocky!
Out in the open, in the clear,
Where any wisenmouse would fear,
Jam licks his paw, he grooms an ear,
And never hears approaching hisssss . . .
What will happen to the brave mouse Jam when he breaks the rules and goes for a moonlit adventure against the advice of the elder mice?
Award-winning illustrator Barry Moser has created a dark and vivid mouse world to complement this cautionary tale full of clever nonsense words and rhyming prose that will keep kids on the edge of their seats.
Publishers Weekly
In this cautionary tale about a mouse named Jam Boy who learns to follow the rules, Moser’s dark illustrations set a menacing tone while Doyen’s verse will be a challenge for the book’s target audience. Newcomer Doyen’s puns and invented words are sometimes clever, as when the mice are out at night “scoutaprowl” and Jam Boy escapes from a snake by quickly “scritchscrambl[ing] in a log!” However, the complex text often sounds as if the imaginary words were conceived to rhyme rather than to make a Jabberwocky-like, off-kilter kind of sense (“They runtunnel through the riddle—/ Secret ruts hid inbetwiddle—/ But one mousling jams the middle!/ Whilst he goofiddles, others howl”). After Jam Boy’s escape, the text awkwardly announces, “Mouse years go by...” and the reader next sees Jam Boy as a bearded “eldermouse” warning that “The world afield is dangerouse.... Be Forewarned!” Moser’s (Hogwood Steps Out) paintings, on the other hand, are a marvel of nighttime beauty, the rice paddies lit by a yellow moon and filled with expressive mice and animals who witness the story’s events. Ages 4–7. (Aug.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
In this cautionary tale about a mouse named Jam Boy who learns to follow the rules, Moser’s dark illustrations set a menacing tone while Doyen’s verse will be a challenge for the book’s target audience. Newcomer Doyen’s puns and invented words are sometimes clever, as when the mice are out at night “scoutaprowl” and Jam Boy escapes from a snake by quickly “scritchscrambl[ing] in a log!” However, the complex text often sounds as if the imaginary words were conceived to rhyme rather than to make a Jabberwocky-like, off-kilter kind of sense (“They runtunnel through the riddle—/ Secret ruts hid inbetwiddle—/ But one mousling jams the middle!/ Whilst he goofiddles, others howl”). After Jam Boy’s escape, the text awkwardly announces, “Mouse years go by...” and the reader next sees Jam Boy as a bearded “eldermouse” warning that “The world afield is dangerouse.... Be Forewarned!” Moser’s (Hogwood Steps Out) paintings, on the other hand, are a marvel of nighttime beauty, the rice paddies lit by a yellow moon and filled with expressive mice and animals who witness the story’s events. Ages 4–7. (Aug.)Children's Literature -
"Once upon a twice," on a moonlit night, "mice were scoutaprowl." Doyen plays with language, inventing new words to tell the magical tale of a mouse called Jam Boy. The other mice warn him of "the dangers of Moon" lurking in the night. Instead of going home Jam, feeling clever, seeks adventure. A snake spots him. We, and the other creatures, fear he "has reached his early dead a-sleep." But Jam has luckily survived to warn other mouslings that the "world afield is dangerouse." "Be forewarned!" The suspense-filled tale is told in verse crafted with three rhyming lines and a fourth that rhymes with that of the next verse. The format and vocabulary are teasing challenges for curious minds. On wide double pages, from one endpage to the other, Moser creates the setting of a spooky dark world, illuminated by tiny firefly-like lights and an ever-present full moon, and dominated by spiky black silhouettes. This melodramatic stage is home to an appealing group of white mice. The young are nervous, the gray beards more sedate, as they deliver warnings to our hero. Emotional involvement is inevitable. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia MarantzSchool Library Journal
K-Gr 3—Doyen's utterly sound and alive story is paired with the perfect illustrator, whose deft touch provides all the eeriness that it begs for. The cautionary tale begins with the "eldermice" telling the youngsters who are gathered to play in the night air that the woods and ponds are filled with creatures dangerous to their kind. With gloriously nonsensical words and phrases (e.g., "scritchscrambles"), the author manages to get the point across that there is much to fear in the night. Jam Boy doesn't listen and instead brags that he is unafraid, and he stays to play alone by the pond. Here the language grows taut with suspense, and Moser's dark backdrop is punctuated with fireflies. "Half-submerged, a slender queen/Esses 'cross the pond unseen,/Sly serpentine—bound not to miss…." Out of nowhere a snake roils, coils, and lashes. Splash! What has happened to Jam Boy? Children will be sitting on the edge of their seats awaiting some news about their fallen protagonist. Despite the dark feel, there is much to rejoice about in learning of Jam Boy's fate. Ultimately a story of youthful arrogance—or as Doyen calls it, "furry overconfidence"—versus the elders' wise experience, this wonderful book is a marvelous read-aloud that children will want to hear again and again. It is too good to save for Halloween.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VAKirkus Reviews
A foolish mouse is prone to jamming up the line of fellow night-foragers to smell a rose and wandering off to watch a beetle. After nearly becoming a snake's dinner, "Jam" lives on to lecture mouslings on the dangers of moonlit meanders. The lushness here is in Doyen's "Jabberwocky"-inspired verse, delivered chiefly in rhyming four-line stanzas. " ‘Beware the dangershine of Moon, / Do not disturb the bugs of June!' / The elder mouncelors whispercroon / A tune that tells Jam what to fear . . . " The scansion's near perfect, and deliciously inventive words (riskarascal, jaw-claws, furlickt) invite repeat read-alouds. Moser's fulsome full-bleed pictures employ a palette of midnight blue, inky charcoal, grayed greens and luminescent ochres. Jagged stalks silhouette ominously against a fat, full moon that picks out detail in a cluster of white roses and the reptilian gleam of a snake's scales. In a particularly effective spread, pairs of eyes, anonymously aglow, peer at prey from near-pitch darkness. This slight cautionary tale is undeniably arrayed in a gorgeous brocade, woven of fresh, inventive wordplay and masterful illustrations. (Picture book. 4-7)From the Publisher
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2009:"Undeniably arrayed in a gorgeous brocade, woven of fresh, inventive wordplay and masterful illustrations."
Starred Review, School Library Journal, August 2009:
"This wonderful book is a marvelous read-aloud that children will want to hear again and again."
Review, Booklist, July 1, 2009:
"This handsome book offers a terrific opportunity for a capable narrator to deliver a captivating read-aloud."
Syndicated Review, The New & Observer (Raleigh, NC), August 24, 2009:
"'Once Upon a Twice' is one of those amazing books that you and your kids will both love to read aloud for years."
Review, Newsday, October 4, 2009:
"Excellent for reading aloud, even to the youngest readers, who will just let the poetic words wash over them."
Review, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 4, 2009:
"A treat for the eye and the ear."
Review, Chicago Parent, November 2009:
"Fun to read aloud."