Miss Mouse Takes Off

Miss Mouse--the poker-faced, gangly-limbed rag doll who first appeared in Jan Ormerod's Miss Mouse's Day--takes to the air with her towheaded friend and her mom in Miss Mouse Takes Off. Amazing how much there is to do on an airplane with a little creativity and a lot of energy! They color pictures, watch a movie, play catch with the little boy one row up (Miss Mouse practices her flying as she's tossed from one to the other), and congratulate the pilot on a good landing. After being mislaid a few times, and almost lost to the baggage carousel, Miss Mouse (not to mention her young guardian and her cheerful but harried mother) is ready to get out of the airport and into Granny's arms.

Every child with a strong attachment to one special cuddly toy will be right on board with Miss Mouse's adventures. Told from the multipatterned mouse's point of view, the story is full of wry observations and humorous asides. "I love to color..." Miss Mouse says, even as the reader notices that she is squashed in the seat behind her crayon-clutching friend. In the next frame both girl and mouse seem to have tired of drawing, and Miss Mouse continues her statement: "for a while." The simple, brief, first-person text and jaunty illustrated panels make this a perfect fit for beginning readers. (Ages 3 to 7) --Emilie Coulter

Jan Omerod, author-artist of Who's Whose?, Ben Goes Swimming, and Emily Dances, who also illustrated Sky Dancer by Jack Bushnell, lives in Cambridge, England. In Her Own Words...

"I grew up in the fifties, in a series of small towns in Western Australia, with three older sisters. As a child I drew constantly and compulsively, inspired by beautifully drawn schoolgirl annuals from England. I secretly devoured forbidden American comics, poring over the draughtsmanship.

"I went to art school at a time when the practice of drawing was regarded as the underpinning of all activity in the visual arts'coming to know' by looking closely and recording honestly. All my options took me into the fine arts--drawing, painting, and sculpture. I was obsessed with the human face, figure, and gesture. I became an Associate of the Western Australian Institute of Technology and Design in Art Education and taught art in secondary schools on enrichment programs for talented students, then lectured in a teachers college and in art schools.

"As a young woman I was not very maternal, and intended not to have children. My first pregnancy was entirely unplanned. My books have largely been a celebration and savoring of the positive experience of parenthood I had not anticipated-the fun, warmth, and love. Designing picture books for young children, I am aware that such books are almost always shared by the child and a caring adult. I find the challenge of communicating with both child and adult-working on two levels in one book--a demanding, intriguing and rewarding task. I design picture books for children and adults because I depend on the adult to create the right atmosphere and help children read them. When this happens, it is a time for physical closeness and comfort, a quiet time for sharing ideas and feelings, for laughing and learning together. Anyone who takes time to share books with young children is rewarded and revitalized by the experience every time.

"My task as a visual storyteller is to observe, record, and edit. Some images go straight from life into a book. Most need to be carefully sifted, reinvented, reorganized. Telling a story with words and pictures is a little like watching a movie, then selecting the evocative moment like a still taken from a film. I need to capture the moment that has clarity and simplicity, invites empathy, and allows the reader to bring her own knowledge to that moment, to enrich it, and develop it according to her own life experiences.

"I now live in Cambridge, England with my two daughters, Sophie and Laura. We return to Australia to be with my family and friends as often as we can."