Whitefoot Mouse

by Barbara and Russell Peterson, Illustrated by Russell Peterson
E.M. Hale and Company

If you have kids, you know that children’s books about animals usually fall into two camps: There are the basic non-fiction books that give your kids just enough information to raise a million questions you can’t answer. And there are the cute, anthropomorphized stories that make your kids love animals, but fill their heads with misinformation that makes the realities of nature hard to bear. But recently, a little breath of fresh air came my way – a true-to-life story of an animal, full of adventure, excitement, and information worth remembering.

Whitefoot Mouse, by Barbara and Russell Peterson, is a story for early readers (think first or second grade) that follows the life of one mouse from October through late spring. We watch as he searches for food, makes a nest, finds a mate, navigates the perils of winter, and watches his own young strike out on their own, all written in clear, unemotional text. Each chapter is filled with enough detail to satisfy the curiosity of any child. In Night Hunters, he “put his nose on his chest, crossed his front paws on his nose, curled his tail around his body, and slept.” In Everything Grows, the baby “took one of the mother’s nipples in its mouth and held on tightly…. As the milk filled the tiny stomach, it showed white under the thin, pink skin.”

This is not the fluff normally found in children’s books.

Whitefoot Mouse was written in 1959 (the available edition was published in 1966) and is filled with a no-nonsense approach to life cycles that you just don’t see anymore. A number of mice die in the tale, but none in such a way that would frighten a small child. In one place, we are told, “There was a tussle. The pine mouse lay still.” And in another, “From behind the log ran a skunk and caught them both, and carried them off.” If you’re looking for a story to help your child understand predation, it’s hard to do better.

The illustrations, too, have a charming simplicity. The Petersons are a husband and wife team: Barbara is the writer and Russell is the illustrator. He was a mammalogist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His tri-color pencil drawings show his expertise and are lively enough to walk right off the page.

As if an educational, well-told story weren’t enough, the Petersons include a foreword with concise information about North American mice and an afterword entitled, How to Have a Mouse for a Pet. This may be my favorite part of the book. The Petersons are not interested in pet stores or manufactured accoutrements for rodents. They assume that you will catch your mouse and include instructions for making “a live trap from: an ordinary mouse trap, a tin can with one end cut out, [and] a square piece of ¼” mesh wire, slightly larger than the opening of the can.” For a cage, they recommend two 12” round cake pans, which serve as ceiling and floor, with a wall of mesh wire fastened in between. And who doesn’t long for a world where a family is more likely to have spare cake pans than access to a pet store?