Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4-6. Someone at the Park Snoot Hotel saw a mouse, but everyone--from the doorman to the hotel owner--insists it isn't so. Still, renowned mouse catchers Hyde and Snide are called to "look into this beastly matter." Despite their best efforts, however, they come up short. Children, on the other hand, won't have to look too hard to find the pesky mouse, who manages to appear in almost all the humorous cartoon illustrations. The first half of the story is too repetitious (15 characters repeat the same three sentences), but with the addition of Hyde and Snide, the second half picks up nicely. Children will enjoy looking for the mouse, though the creature is so tiny in the pictures that the book won't work well in a group story time. Lauren Peterson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"What a scandal! What a calamity!" Someone has spotted a mouse in the ultra-chic Park Snoot Hotel. Everyone else says it ain't so. Says Simon the doorman, "Do you see a mouse? I do not see a mouse"-a refrain echoed by other hotel employees and guests. Delighted youngsters, however, will squeal "Yes!" as they spy the mouse on the subsequent pages of this predictable yet engaging tale by the creator of the Lyle Crocodile books. The mouse can be seen riding atop a pile of luggage on the bellman's cart, nibbling a piece of cheese in the kitchen, peeking out from a napkin on a waiter's tray, helping the conductor direct the hotel orchestra, etc. Though the hotel owner, too, denies the existence of the rodent, he decides to put everyone's mind at ease and hires the world's foremost mouse-catchers to "look into this beastly matter." In lively slapstick style, Waber shows the debonair mouse looking on as the identically mustachioed, bowler-hatted Hyde and Snide search high and low, finally certifying (and double certifying) that there is no mouse in the hotel. Even more than his lighthearted text, Waber's droll cartoon art delivers the humor here. Ages 4-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2When a mouse is spotted at the highbrow Park Snoot Hotel, all of the employees and guests emphatically deny its existence. But, just to put everyone's mind at ease, the exterminator team of Hyde and Snide is brought in, and then the fun really begins. Very easy to read, with lots of repetition (``Do you see a mouse? I do not see a mouse''), the book is ideal for beginning readers, who will love their own miniature, less complicated version of ``Waldo.'' The uncluttered pictures with lots of white space make finding the endearing rodent challenging but not frustrating, and are a perfect accompaniment to the simple text. The adult characters are amusing in their denial of the presence of varmint, but it's the impish little mouse who steals the show here.Trev Jones, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The Park Snoot Hotel has had an incredible complaint -- someone has seen a mouse. As employees and guests emphatically affirm, 'No, no, no, there is no mouse here,' the mouse gazes calmly out from a variety of vantage points. Even the 'Elegant Pest Management' team of Hyde and Snide cannot spot the mouse. Waber's characterizations are full of sly humor as the rascally rodent successfully bamboozles one and all. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
