Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure

Kirk’s fourth book about Sam the library mouse continues the exploration theme of the third book, Library Mouse: A World to Explore, while offering a significant focus on art. Along with Sarah, the adventure-seeking mouse he met in the previous story, Sam makes an after-hours visit to the museum next door, giving Sam his first trip outside the library and introducing both mice to art and artifacts from across the centuries. Kirk revels in the museum environment, and readers (with parental help) will be able to identify works by and allusions to Seurat, Hokusai, Degas, and many more. The mice, though, are a bit wooden, with the same basic expressions whether admiring statuary or running away from the museum’s resident artist cat. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)