OUTERMOST MOUSE

With compassionate prose, haunting artwork, and an open, mythic ending, Newbery Honoree Wolk, making her picture book debut, and Adam (The Urban Owls) capture what it means to face a literal sea change. A brown mouse "in love with her life" shares with an old man the Outermost House, a ramshackle cabin perched on a beach "where the land slipped away." Nature provides for the mouse's needs, and the house supplies creature comforts, including a clock that "tick-tocked her to sleep at night." But the waters are rising nearer the residence, and while other animals prove unconcerned and the house itself seems resigned to its fate, the mouse attempts to build rodent-size defenses. When the human owner finally abandons the abode, the ocean rushes in, and sweeping digitally finished watercolors turn genuinely frightening as the mouse, clinging to a post, is enveloped in stormy darkness. Then realism gives way to legend: the protagonist lashes her tail to the porch--now her prow--and standing with hands on hips, heads into open waters, "the sea itself singing her name as she joined the ranks of captains everywhere." The creators acknowledge real loss--climate change, displacement, homes that can't be saved. But they also offer young readers navigating their own "outermost" futures a path forward, defined by courage and a sense of adventure. An author's note concludes. Ages 4--8. (May)

Rodent versus nature. The Outermost Mouse loves everything about her life: the wind, the water, the sky, the sand, and, best of all, the Outermost House, which sits alongside the ocean. Alas, the sea is encroaching on her home, and no one seems to care. Attempts to barricade the home with sand and shells are for naught, and even the old man who owns the home finally abandons it. Yet when the waves sweep the house into the ocean, the Outermost Mouse remains, commanding the dwelling like a ship, "the sea itself singing her name as she joined the ranks of captains everywhere." The lesson here, if indeed there is one, is subject to the reader's interpretation. Perhaps it's about accepting what you cannot change, not letting it defeat you. Certainly, there's no escaping the feeling of hope and vitality in the face of chaos and change. Newbery Medalist Wolk's carefully selected words conjure up classic children's tales: "The fox just grinned his sly grin and trotted away in his smart black boots, as foxes are apt to do." Meanwhile, Adam's dreamlike watercolors will make readers feel as though they, too, inhabit this enchanting world; they'll feel the same warmth and love as the mouse does for her home. A "song worth singing, and a world worth saving" best describes this triumphant tale of defending what you love. (author's note)(Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.