Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia, intersects entertainment and learning

There’s something about the cover to Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia: A Picture Book About The Wonders of Nature that perfectly translates how easily the book can cross over to different ages and cultures. It’s from the perspective of a little mouse, albeit a very intelligent one, who is exploring the things around her burrow. All the while a narrator is providing some expository comments as to why she’s doing things, in addition to offering smarter-than-expected facts about the flora and fauna that the mouse encounters on daily basis.

Illustrated or picture books do not have to be about unicorns, kittens or princesses having a bad day. Intelligent picture books that double as a reference book for the really young are a fabulous way for kids to learn things that are more complex that their years. The really good books that do this weave entertainment and education together so seamlessly that it’s challenging to tell one aspect of the book from another.

Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia is certainly of the better books in that category. Kids: don’t let the word ‘encyclopedia’ fool you. Yes, that word is in the book’s title, however, this is not the rout, ABC-style book that you associate that six-syllable word. This is a story that takes place around the burrow, near the pond, in the garden and the forest. The reason all of those areas need to be explored is that mouse is making an encyclopedia.

Therein lays the story, but anyone who knows even a little bit about their backyard is that it’s not a simple one. There are different types of worms, those worms have life cycles, and they have predators. The forest is rich with varying forms of life, ants have their own kingdom, and the trees provide a canopy and canvas for dozens of birds and their necessities. For example, do you know the difference between down, contour and flight feathers?   

Can you identify over a dozen vegetables from the garden just by seeing a cross-section of them while they’re in the ground? I missed four of them, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about and I had no idea about the three different types of feathers. I also didn’t know the phonetic pronunciation of the nine different types of birds shown on one page.

It’s ok if you’re an adult and don’t know many, or most of the facts in Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia. The goal of this picture book is not to intimidate or demean those who don’t know. This is a book that encourages learning through curiosity and lovingly crafted illustrations. Are you familiar with Billy from The Family Circus and the circuitous route he’d take to get to some places? Now, visualize that, but take away the dotted lines and replace them with any number of insects, growth cycles or STEM-minded topic that’s presented on a level that makes you want to look at it.

Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia is that. Ages five through twelve will open the book, learn something and be entertained. They might also open the book, be entertained and learn something. Much like other intelligent picture books, those older readers will scoff and think that they know everything in the book, but they don’t. Part of growing up and really being intelligent is knowing that you don’t know everything. Dare I say that a majority of adults either don’t realize that or don’t care enough to change the outcome.

This is a happy, curious, cross-section of a reference book that’s as much fun to read, as it is to learn from. Young children want to learn, they simply need a vehicle that’s effortless for them to spend time with. In Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia: A Picture Book About the Wonders of Nature has timeless illustrations and intelligent text that tells a story, in addition to providing snippets of shareable information that’s in league with Nat Geo Kids. Those are the facts akin to the weight of a human brain, the types of feathers and explaining that a honeydew is not just a list that husbands try to accomplish on the weekend.

Little Mouses’s Encyclopedia: A Picture Book About the Wonders of Nature is by Tereza Vostradovska and is available on Milky Way Picture Books.

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