Originally written in 1966 Santa Mouse by Michael Brown certainly has a classical feeling tail…. tale. This came across before I realized it was a retelling.
There is one lonely mouse, with a very active imagination. And a mouse who is a bit modern: some of his imaginary friends have tea parties’ others play cowboys, Inuit and a “Spanish-person” with him. However, this political correctness of using Inuit could be the editors doing an updated version to fit the contemporary reader. As I think he probably played Eskimo, but still had a tea party.
One Christmas Eve, our mouse (who by the way, does not have a name on top of living all alone in a very large house), brushes his teeth and realizes that nobody gives Santa a gift at Christmas. Therefore, he wraps up (in a gum wrapper) his very makes the Angels sing piece of cheese, for Santa. And Santa is so touched, he rewards our mouse in a delightfully special way.
The whole book is cute. It is sweet. Elfrieda De Witt was Brown’s choice for illustrations as he knew she would create classic pieces of work that fit the feel of the story. You can smell old-school flare. There are simple illustrations that are far from simplistic. They are packed full of color and details. It is the Christmas of Christmas cards.
This is a hit-miss book. The little readers/listeners will like the mouse and his meeting of Santa. The adults will get a kick out of Santa’s gift to the mouse.