I was surprised when I picked up the book Mr. Murry and Thumbkin, from the library, at how different the illustrations were from other Karma Wilson books. Ms. Wilson does use different illustrators for her books, but the style of this one was very different.
The Story
This is the story of two mice, Mr. Murry and Thumbkin. Mr. Murry lived in a teapot and worried about everything.
”Are the days too short?
Are the nights too cold?
Is my tail too long?
Are my teeth too old?”
He worried away each and every day.
His new neighbor, Thumbkin, moved into the pumpkin next door and didn’t seem to worry about anything, including what would happen to his pumpkin house as it got older and when the snow came.
The two got along well, but Mr. Murry was always worried about his friend, especially when the snow came and the rotting pumpkin began to cave in.
The worrying Mr. Murry knew just what to do and invited his neighbor over to his warm teapot but then worried about having enough food through the winter for two, that is until Thumbkin reminded his friend that they had half a pumpkin, enough to eat all year!
The Illustrations
The bright color pencil drawings in this book are done with a bit of a cartoon look to them. They fill the page from edge to edge and the illustrator uses lots of colors and highlights most drawings with the use of smatterings of black lines throughout the pages.
The two mice are so cute and are drawn to look noticeably different. Mr. Murry has the biggest black eyes, a long nose and rather large ears that stand up. He is dressed just so and wears a bow tie too.
Thumbkin is a scruffy looking mouse with small dark eyes and small ears and a much shorter nose. You can tell when you see either one of them, which one they are.
The interesting details of the pages are in the things that are used to make each mouse’s house a home. Mr. Murry sleeps in a matchbox and uses a cat food can for his stove. He has a wheel from a child’s truck for his planter for a sunflower and keeps his teapot neat and tidy. The early pages show him cleaning and wiping windows…without a word we learn a lot about this little mouse.
On the other hand, Thumbkin relaxes next to his home and gnaws on a stalk of hay all day. Inside his home is a hammock he lays on and he has no problem cutting out pieces of pumpkin to make sweet pumpkin cake.
The text is very small and this would be the one con that I find with this book. It’s placement is sometimes hard to see and holding it up and reading to a group is very difficult.
My Feelings
I love the feel of this book. The two opposite mice becoming friends and caring for one another is a wonderful lesson for a children’s book to impart.
I think the thing that makes this story so appealing is how different these two mice are. Not only in the way they look but how they keep their homes, how they prepare for the future, how they dress and what their moods are. This book reminded me a bit of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse.
My daycare children thought that Mr. Murry worried too much and felt that Thumbkin was a happier mouse. We talked about what it means to prepare for the future…of course in a very simple way. We talked about how parents doing things like grocery shopping or going to work are ways to be sure that they would have the things that they need in the future.
This book gave me a great opportunity to talk about differences as well. At the ages of my daycare children, 3 and 4 years (also a 21 month old, but he isn’t usually too involved in our discussions…yet) they seem to be very interested in how boys and girls are different, how their eye color, hair color and height are different. We were able to discuss that even when someone doesn’t look like us, they have very many things in common with us. It was such a fun discussion…I wish I had been recording it.
The illustrations are a little bit different than most picture books that I’ve read to the kids, but they are fun and interesting and I like the style they are done in. With some things being exaggerated these two mice are drawn to be friendly and fanciful.
Nuts & Bolts
Mr. Murry and Thumbkin was written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Ard Hoyt.
This 32 page hardcover book was published in September 2004 by Little, Brown & Company.
This book is great for children 3 to 6 years old.
Recommended:
