Today I’m going to try my hand at something new: a “simple” book review.

Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.

I say “simple” in quotes because, although I used to review movies for years, I’ve never simply reviewed a picture book.  I think I’ve come to prefer my interviews of picture book creators, but that isn’t always possible.  Sometimes creators pass away (that happened once in the process of trying to get an interview together) or are too busy (that’s happened a few times too) and interviews just aren’t possible.  That would be the case with this book (i.e., SANTA MOUSE FINDS A FURRY FRIEND) as the author passed away in 2014.

Yet I was intrigued by this book and wanted to know more.  I can never leave things simple, without digging further. Bear with me if this gets too long (as I love sharing what I’ve found out).

The original SANTA MOUSE story came out in 1966, written by Michael Brown and illustrated by Elfrieda De Witt.  I’m sad to say that I’d never heard of it before now.  I don’t even know if it was wildly popular, but many YouTube read alouds touting it as a “favorite from my childhood” would seem to indicate so.  There were several sequels in the late 60s and a treasury in the 70s that were also released.  I’m not sure when they became a board book series, but that brings us to the present and the “newly discovered” book I will discuss today.

First though, let’s discuss the author.  Michael Brown seems to have been a bit of a Renaissance man.  He was an American composer, lyricist, writer, director, producer, and performer who seems to have been rather well known in New York city Broadway circles.  He did cabaret, produced songs and albums, as well as wrote musicals (among MANY other things).  The story goes that he saw some Christmas pajama fabric featuring a mouse and was inspired to write the Santa mouse story that started this whole franchise.  It really is a sweet story and probably stands out as the best in the series to date.  Having read through most of the books in the series, I can say that he was all about rhyme.  By today’s standards, the rhyme is a tiny bit dated with some forced verbiage that current rhyming picture book authors would NOT get away with.  BUT that’s nostalgia for you.

I was able to find out very little about Elfrieda De Witt, the original illustrator of the series.  I do not know if she’s still living.  I assume not as there is a new illustrator for the book I will discuss in just a minute.  Michael Brown loved “Freddie’s” illustrations as he thought they perfectly captured the spirit of Christmas.  Yet sadly, I can’t find any references to her illustration work outside of these books, other than working for greeting card companies.  What fascinates me is that the illustrator of today’s book, Robert McPhillips, is also known for work on greeting cards (and animation, as well as other books).  I wonder if that was a common theme for how he got the gig to illustrate this book.  Whatever the case, if I didn’t know there were two different illustrators, I would never have guessed it.  The illustrations in SANTA MOUSE FINDS A FURRY FRIEND are a dead ringer for the original books’ illustrations.  They have the same nostalgic feel that will surely whisk readers who are fans of SANTA MOUSE back in time.

image courtesy of Little Simon/Simon & Schuster

SANTA MOUSE FINDS A FURRY FRIEND came out in September, ten years after Michael Brown passed away.  The unpublished manuscript was “newly discovered” by his wife, former ballerina Joy Williams Brown.  It tells the story of Santa and Santa Mouse out delivering presents on Christmas night when Santa mouse hears a poor lost kitten crying in a snow storm.  If that doesn’t yank your heartstrings right there, you’re made of stronger stuff than I am.  Santa is in a hurry, but Santa Mouse convinces him to grab the kitten in passing and they name her Joy (just like Michael’s wife).

The story is a bit predictable.  I mean, do you really think Santa is going to leave the kitten behind in a picture book?  Yet it’s the rhyme that bothers me.  I’m going to be nice and assume that this was previously unpublished because it hadn’t been sufficiently revised.  The original SANTA MOUSE was much more polished in rhythm and rhyme than this book is.  It’s not BAD, per se, just clunky in a few parts.  BUT young readers won’t even notice (especially if they’re fond of holiday stories with mice in them and I fully admit I’m partial to them myself).

images courtesy of Little Simon/Simon & Schuster

The illustrations are adorable. ADORABLE!  The kitten has a cute pink bow for goodness sake. While the modern reader in me was a tiny bit worried for Santa Mouse’s safety around a kitten, this book doesn’t embrace any carnage. It’s all good feels with a nice holiday warmth.  If there’s any future predatory problems, we are not privy to them here.  So if you’re looking for a nice nostalgic Christmas book for a stocking stuffer, this just might be it.