Moranville's (Over the River) quiet chapter-book saga of a mouse family is given a quaint, old-fashioned flavor with Alter's (The Three Little Kittens) tidy cross-hatched watercolors. Full-page illustrations of anthropomorphized mice in long skirts or pullovers with Peter Pan collars alternate with sepia drawings; the characters look demure even when doing back flips. The story's theme is tied together with the eponymous purple ribbon, an heirloom that goes "who knows how many generations back." In the opening chapter, a very young Spring wants to take the purple ribbon from GranDora; by the second chapter, which has abruptly skipped to the grown Spring's pregnancy, Spring is anxious to return the purple ribbon to GranDora's safekeeping. An end-of-winter storm finds Spring giving birth in the back seat of a car, where she improvises a home. Before she can bring her four children to GranDora's house under the thorn tree, however, there are cats to evade and tense adventures, including the children's inadvertent trip to a new location. Spring's only daughter, Parsley Snowflake, emerges as the main protagonist; she has her mother's courage, and it is of the steadfast rather than the swashbuckling variety. A solidly cozy caper. Ages 6-9. (Apr.)
