Monday, April 3, 2017

Picture Book Review: Mr. Postmouse Takes a Trip by Marianne Dubuc

I received a temporary ecopy of this picture book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Mr. Postmouse Takes A Trip
Author: Marianne Dubuc
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Length: 24 pages
Format: pdf
Source: Netgalley


Synopsis:
The post office is closed, and that means it's time for Mr. Postmouse and his family to take a vacation. Of course, he'll need to bring along a few parcels -- a postmouse's rounds are never done! -- as he and Mrs. Mouse, Milo, Lulu, and Pip set off on an around-the-world tour. Doing whatever it takes to reach their destinations (including traveling by hot-air balloon, cruise ship, and camel!) the intrepid mouse family treks from the forest to the sea, the desert to the ice field, finding adventure, new discoveries and animal friends at every far-flung stop. And all along the way, Mr. Postmouse never misses a delivery!

The pages of this humorous, playful follow-up to Mr. Postmouse's Rounds from award-winning author and illustrator Marianne Dubuc overflow with clever details. The simple story of the mouse family's trip is used to transport children from one fantastically imagined place to the next. Perfect for encouraging visual literacy, this picture book will delight readers and prereaders as they explore it again and again, searching the busy artwork for something new and unexpected, including the cross-section drawings that allow a peek inside the animals' homes and the many stories-within-a-story appearing in every spread. The scenes provide a terrific introduction to the concepts of community and neighborhoods, as well as modes of transportation. This book would make a whimsical lead-in to a life science lesson on animals' habitats, or to discussions about the world's cultures and geography. 

My Thoughts: 
My daughter and I absolutely adored Mr. Postmouse's Rounds and had just as much fun (if not more) with this sequel. There's something amazing about Dubuc's picture books. Not only do they tell a story, but they tell many stories in one. 

This time around, Mr. Postmouse and his family have gone on vacation, but they don't go to just one place. They end up traveling all over the world!
They go camping, to the beach, on a cruise ship, a jungle island, the desert, the mountains, the Arctic, and more. Everywhere they go, they meet new people, discover new things, and have a jolly time. If you look closely, you can see that Mr. Postmouse is still doing his job at each of these destinations. He starts out with his wagon full of packages and other goods and ends up with nothing left by the time he gets home. Very much like the first book, you get to see who he delivers mail to and the inner workings of their unique homes and habitats. 

One of my absolute favorite things about these books is that there are no words. The pictures themselves have so many details that they tell the stories all by themselves. And there are so many details that you can tell a different story every time you 'read' this to a child. You can tell the story of Mr. Postmouse making his deliveries, or you can tell the story of his travels, or of the children and their amazing adventures, or of the other creatures who inhabit the places that they travel to.

These are such imaginative and unique picture books that I would recommend to everyone. 

You can see my review for the first book, Mr. Postmouse's Rounds, here

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