The Mousehunter

The Mousehunter by Alex Milway
Little, Brown Young Readers, 2009

The Mousehunter is the first in a trilogy of books about the adventures of a young mousehunter named Emiline. There are good guys and bad guys, a port-city/pirate ship setting, and a strange, strange culture that seems to place an unwarranted amount of value on the lives of mice. In this world, there are thousands of kinds of mice, who are capable of doing all sorts of things, so their value ranges form their value as tools to their value as collectors items. Emiline is, I assume, an orphan of some sort, although we really don't get to know her past very well. She's 12, and working on her own (as a mousehunter, and apparently a good one), so I must assume she's been orphaned. It's a story set in a time that would be reminiscent of the 18th century, but is not really our world so the time in which the story is set is really of no matter. I guess I could say that the technology, economy, and social norms seem similar to late 18th century England. Sort of. Because the mice kind of throw things off.

I have to admit, I was skeptical about this book. I chose it pretty much the same way I choose all my books -- by the cover. Glossy, blue cover (the jacket actually -- the book itself is yellow, which is also nice), nice cover illustration, good sized book (448 pages, but in that nice compact 7.5 by 5 inch format). There are some cool illustrations at the front of the book (although the only other illustrations were pictures of some of the various odd mice). But the premise seemed like a weak attempt to do something different with the very much used sub-sub-genre of middle-grade pirate fiction -- I mean, really, mice as valuable objects? But once I got through the first few chapters, the book picked up. I am not sure if the writing actually got better, or if I was just able to get over what seemed to me like a pretty weak nail to hang your plot from. I think my sense of the book getting better did have a lot to do with the writing itself -- at the beginning the author was trying to establish setting and character and the basic premise of the mice, and it seemed awfully contrived. Once the story got going, the whole thing improved considerably. Ship captains, good pirates, bad pirates, dodgy characters, evil wealthy guys, sea battles, hangings, and lots of mice. Pretty engaging read, once things got moving. Would my seven-year old like it? Yes, although he'd get bored too quickly since he likes shorter books than this one.

The author did a nice job of leaving his options open for future books. The basic storyline does end, and there is no reference on the cover or elsewhere to the fact that this is a series, but it does turn out to be a series. I'll read the next one if I can find it at the library. I couldn't find much in the way of established reviews -- first time author writing about mice and all that, probably not exactly on the desk of reviewers for the New York Times or anything -- but there are a few bloggers out there who have made some comments on it (generally quite favorable). I suspect if I mucked about in the kind of places children's librarians spend their time, I'd find more reviews.

There's a pretty thorough website (where you can learn a bit more about the authors original calling as an illustrator):

http://www.themousehunter.com/

----------------------------------------------------------