One Grey Mouse

Kelly L. Green is editor of the Canadian Book Review Annual’s
Children’s Literature edition.

This counting/concept story is an attractive, enjoyable, multipurpose
early childhood book. One grey mouse lives in a black (teapot) house,
while two black cats lie on an orange cat mat, three orange snakes float
in a blue snake lake, and so on. Children will enjoy the repetition of
the colors from one page to the next, and the simple rhyming text is as
effective as that of the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You
See? Both colors and numbers are reinforced by the gorgeously colored,
cleverly designed Plasticine illustrations (look for Grey Mouse in each
one). An extremely well-designed book—even the typeface has been given
careful thought (a clean, large sans serif that children learning to
read for themselves will find easy to decipher). Destined to be a
classic, One Grey Mouse is highly recommended.