Young Adult Fiction for Adults discussion

Hi Everybody, I’d like to recommend the children’s/YA book The Mouse and His Child for adults and advanced younger readers.

Into a fascinating story of toy and live animals, Hoban writes in an allegory of existentialism. Now, existentialism itself is debatable, but as a philosophical movement, one should be exposed to it.

The symbols that Hoban uses most significantly are that the father mouse wants to become self-winding, and that the mouse child wants to see what’s beyond “the last visible dog.” The “last visible dog” is on a can of Bonzo dog food, which shows a dog carrying a can of Bonzo dog food, which in turn shows a dog carrying a can of Bonzo dog food, and so on. Eventually, the child discovers what is behind the “the last visible dog.”

But this is not a book for the faint at heart, as this quote shows:

“The weasels flowed like hungry shadows down into the hollow, and once among the shrews, struck right and left with lightning swiftness, smiling pleasantly with the blood of both armies dripping from their jaws. Not a single shrew escaped. When the weasels had satisfied their thirst for blood they bounded away, leaving behind them heaps of tiny corpses scattered on the snow.

‘This is a nice territory,’ said the female. ‘It's the nicest we've had yet. I'd kind of like to settle down here for a while.’

‘It's not bad,’ said her mate. ‘Not a bad little territory at all. I could see us making a home here.’ They nuzzled each other affectionately as they ran, and their heads were so close together that when the horned owl swooped down out of the moonlight his talons pierced both brains at once.”

But this book is also loaded with humor. For example, the Crow who runs the “Caws of Art” repertory theater, or the blue jay news crier.

I find myself thinking about this book from time to time, and just wanted to recommend it.