Where's Mouse

Novel design refreshes a familiar story in this picture book, which unfolds, accordion-style, to reveal two sides of a very long spread. It's bedtime, and Mother Mouse has lost Baby Mouse. The first side shows Mother Mouse at day's end, seeking her child among the rabbits, badgers and other inhabitants of a loosely wooded field. On the second side, Mother Mouse enters a burrow to hunt underground as night falls. Readers can join the search party: cutouts on each fold expose cleverly incorporated details from the reverse spread. For example, a hole in the trunk of a tree frames the face of an owl; in the nighttime spread, the owl is shown perching on the ground just above the burrow. In his radiant, full-page art (reminiscent in its intricate detailing of Lynne Cherry's work), Baker plants abundant flora in the foreground of the daytime spread, allowing hedged-in meadows and the occasional stream to recede gracefully into the horizon. The nighttime spread is equally panoramic: earthworms tunnel through the soil, rabbits nestle in the burrow and, below it all, dinosaur skeletons rest in peace. Rewarding. Ages 1-5. (Dec.)