The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail

Starred review from May 13, 2013
As endearing as Peck’s Secrets at Sea, this companion novel, also set during the Victorian era and accompanied by Murphy’s carefully detailed pencil illustrations, introduces a new cast of memorable mice born and bred in London. At center stage is narrator Mouse Minor, an undersize orphan with a question mark–shaped tail, who is uncertain of his heritage. Raised in the Royal Mews next to Buckingham Palace by skilled needlemice, Mouse Minor attends a prestigious school but is tormented by his classmates. When Mouse Minor learns that two bullies “meant to pound me into a jelly,” he flees beyond familiar territory and ends up in the palace, where the staff is frantically preparing for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. All the while, Mouse Minor is unaware that spies are tracking his every move. The small hero’s brushes with danger and run-ins with royalty (both human and rodent) unfold with Peck’s characteristic wit and flair for adventure. Readers will gleefully suspend disbelief as they trace Mouse Minor’s exciting journey, which draws him to a life-altering revelation and surprise reunions with friends and foes. Ages 8–12.

Peck returns to the parallel mouse society he introduced in the effervescent Secrets at Sea (2011) for a rodent's-eye view of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Readers first meet the titular mouse, the book's narrator, in the Royal Mews. A foundling, he's been brought up by his "aunt" Marigold, who is fond of aphorisms. "Nameless is Blameless" is one of her favorites, used whenever her young charge asks who he is. Blameless he may be, but that doesn't keep him out of scrapes. On the run from a couple of school bullies, he finds himself exposed, in his school uniform, on the floor of the royal riding school, where he is noticed by a human--most definitely not the done thing. In short order, he goes from this disgrace to refuge in a horse's manger to a daylong stint as a Yeomouse of the Guard to the private chambers of Queen Victoria, where he blunders into secret upon secret, including, at the end, his identity. Peck binds this unlikely romp together with his characteristically witty and precise prose, flavored by an endearing blend of humility and superiority that only a British foundling mouse can muster. Details of the mouse world that bustles around and under the human world will enchant lovers of animal fantasy, and clever running jokes provide both humor and continuity (our poor hero is continually asked, "Are you not yet full-grown, or just short?"). This mouse-sized identity quest sparkles. (Animal fantasy. 8-12) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2013

Gr 4-6-Mouse Minor is the smallest mouse in the Royal Mews of Queen Victoria's Buckingham Palace. Raised by kindly Aunt Marigold, he has no real family. He doesn't even have a proper name-just a nickname. All he knows is that his mother was not a Mews mouse and that his oddly twisted tail marks him as different from his classmates at the Royal Mews Mouse Academy. Mouse Minor violates a cardinal rule of mouse society by accidentally allowing a human to see him dressed in his school uniform. Disgraced, he runs away, hoping to find some clues about who he is and where he came from. His quest takes him from the stables to the palace parade grounds to Victoria's private chambers, but even the great Queen herself can't give him all the answers he seeks. Set against the background of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee, the story portrays a secret animal society existing in the shadows of the human world. Mice, cats, horses, and other creatures have schools, armies, titles, and industries. Cultural attitudes and social ranks parallel the human ones, although because of the difference in life spans, the animal society moves a bit faster. Attractive mouse's-eye-view drawings help establish the relationship between these two halves of Victorian society. With a plucky hero, exciting plot, and a satisfying, if somewhat predictable resolution, Peck's latest is a gentle homage to old-school adventure tales.-Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2013
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* There is a basic philosophy underlying this sweet mouse-out-in-the-world story: For every human on earth, there is a mouse doing the same job, and doing it better. A tiny, unnamed mouse, with notched ears and a tail that falls naturally into the shape of a question mark, attends the Royal Mews Mouse Academy, taught by toothy headmaster B. Chiroptera. But after being bullied by other mice and driven by the essential question of his identity, the mouse leaves the academy and hatches a rather unformed plan to visit ancient Queen Victoria, awaiting her Diamond Jubilee, in the hopes that the all-knowing monarch can tell him who he is. Along the way to Buckingham Palace, he rides in the ear of a horse named Peg (it's very waxy), falls into a punch bowl (it's very pink), and meets a cast of miceand batswho serve the queen. Murphy's black-and-white illustrations, with pulled quote captions, add charm in spades, and there's one tipped-in full-color illustration in each of the book's three main parts. You can't help but make comparisons to some other very famous books about mice, namely Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux (2003) and E. B. White's Stuart Little, but the parallel world of mice and humans also echoes Mary Norton's The Borrowers (1952). Peck (A Year Down Yonder, 2000) is terrific in relaying small details, like the intricacy of mouse uniforms, and this clever yarn should delight fans of animal adventure stories. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Peck is a Newbery Award winner for A Year Down Yonder and a two-time National Book Award finalist. This may be a book about a tiny mouse, but it'll be big on everyone's radar.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)