The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail (2013)

The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail. Richard Peck. 2013. Penguin. 224 pages.

Every time a human walks out of a room, something with more feet walks in. Mice, of course, who are only a whisker away and everywhere you fail to look. It's true of the room where you're sitting. It's truer still of Buckingham Palace.

Richard Peck is a great writer. Some of his novels I've loved; some I've loved, loved, loved. I definitely LOVED The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail. It is an animal fantasy adventure set in Victorian England. The star of this one is a nameless (but then again nameless is blameless) runt of a mouse. This mouse is VERY curious, and he has a tail to match: for his tail forms a question mark! Readers first meet the young mouse when he's in school, but when he breaks a few too many rules he decides to run away. His running leads him into MANY adventures! I enjoyed them all!

My favorite quotes:

You rarely see a mouse that size unless he's fallen into a butter churn. (106)

"A double life? A secret agent? You never know the full truth about a teacher. And he was everywhere I turned, practically in two places at once. But then, bats can fly. Very worrying. "What a merry chase you have led us from a schoolroom where you benefited from my teaching and protection," he wheezed, shaking his scaly old head. "All the right sort of schools are bat-run, of course, from burrow to belfry," he said, off on a tangent as usual. "How much the world has to learn from us. Yes, I think you'll find that all the best teachers are old bats." (170)

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews