2023 Foreword INDIES Gold Winner
The Mouse Museum of Modern Art is home to paintings and sculptures by the most famous mice artists of the last one hundred years, from Parmesan Picasso to Gouda Kahlo. Take a tour of mouse art history and styles with Curator Marcel, and learn about art movements and styles like Cubism, self-portraits, Pop Art, and many more that have influenced art today. And we can’t forget the cheesy fun facts and activities that go with them!
With adorable mice drawn in famous artwork and an entertaining mix of mouse humor and history facts, Marcel's Mouse Museum is both educational and fun! Plus, each artist comes with an activity to try at home, perfect for inspiring the artist in everyone. The entire experience will be un-brie-lievable!
Praise
There are so many children’s books designed to promote a love of the visual arts. This one definitely inspires some ambivalence, but, overall, I credit Hannah Abbo’s offbeat approach. Framing her book as a visit to a museum, she offers information about several different artists, as well as suggestions for projects that children can undertake to learn about different styles and movements. Gentle satire is a key element; if your child is unfamiliar with Frida Kahlo, then she might miss the humor of the painter’s mouse incarnation as Gouda Kahlo.
The same will be true for Edward Hopping-Mouse, Parmesan Picasso, and the Furrealists. Fortunately, a section with brief biographies of the artists as humans, as well as a glossary, appear at the end of the book. You might want to start there.
The museum is quite inviting. Beautiful endpapers with inspired and offbeat versions of artworks open the book. Marcel himself, working at the museum entrance, encourages enthusiasm about the “hundreds of paintings and sculptures by the most famous mice of the past 100 years.” Here, and throughout the book, his words appear in large font enclosed in speech bubbles against an orange background. A map and guide follow.
Parmesan Picasso opens the tour, since he is “probably the most famous artist in our collection” It would be hard to argue with that assessment. Actual birth and death dates accompany each mouse artist’s name. Picasso’s Blue Period is easily transformed into “Blue Cheese,” and his alleged enjoyment of “sneaking into restaurants” is probably not far from the truth. The accompanying project instructions seem simple and feasible; children are asked to try a pencil drawing without lifting the point from the page. Results may vary.
Henri Mousetisse is appealing to children through his paper cutouts, and his rivalry and friendship with Picasso are noted, as well, adding a bit of depth. The Furrealists, as an artistic movement encompassing many practitioners, gets four pages, including “Méret Hop-penheim’s Luncheon in Fur” (1936). The child sharing the book with you probably has not seen Oppenheim’s famous teacup, but I would guess that the entire idea is appealing to kids. Edward Hopper’s visions of loneliness certainly show “real life as it happens,” and so do the painting of his mouse equivalent. The mouse inhabitants of the diner look pretty sad, even if one’s bright red shirt is a cheerier shade than in the original.
You will decide whether the book is aimed over children’s heads, directly at their parents and caregivers, or if reading it is a wonderful, shared experience. I would vote to try it with some background information, and a brief explanation of the premise. The visitors in the last picture, a cutaway view of the galleries, are obviously having a lot of fun, particularly the two young mice kicking a soccer ball in front of American Gothic.
—Imaginary Elevators, Emily Schneider
