This book was a hit with my kids the minute it hit the door. My two-year-old son took one look at the cover and waved at it. “Hi, Mouse!”
Ruby is a cute little mouse who wears red overalls and a baseball cap (turned backwards, of course—the cool way).
Ruby and her friend, Mrs. Mastiff, are sitting quietly, reading, when suddenly, Ruby hears a noise upstairs. She thinks maybe it’s cat burglars, but Mrs. Mastiff tells her that they live in a cat-free building, so that can’t possibly be it. Ruby really wants to go check it out, but Mrs. Mastiff really wants her to leave well enough alone, so she tries to distract the curious mouse with a game of hide-and-seek. Ruby takes advantage of the situation and scurries upstairs as soon as Mrs. Mastiff starts to count.
It smells like a pig sty upstairs! Ruby sneaks around, trying to figure out where the thumping sound is coming from. But soon she hears a sniffing sound instead, and turns to find herself face to face with three of the biggest snouts she’s ever seen – pig snouts! No wonder the place smells like a pig sty—it really is one!
There’s Papa Sniff (that’s the family name, you see) Mama Sniff, and Baby Sniff. Baby takes an immediate liking to Ruby and wants to keep her for a pet, but she flat-out refuses. So they offer her a chair. The first one is too hard, but the second one is too soft. And when Ruby sits in the baby’s chair, the baby sits in it with her, and it breaks!
Then they invite her to eat, but just before Ruby gets entangled in another page of this fractured fairy tale, Mrs. Mastiff comes to collect Ruby and take her home. It was quite the adventure while it lasted, and much better than a game of hide-and-seek any day.
(This book was published in 2004 by Little, Brown and was illustrated by the author.)
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