Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Everyone's afraid of something . . .Young children will identify with the little mouse who uses the pages of this book to document his fears - from loud noises and the dark, to being sucked down the plughole. Packed with details and novelty elements including flaps, die-cuts and even a hilarious fold-out map, this is an extraordinary picture book. Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal 2008 .

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Dystychiphobia, phagophobia, good old acrophobia: everybody's afraid of something--although it does seem that Gravett's (Orange Pear Apple Bear) winsome mouse protagonist has cornered the market on anxieties. Wittily assuming the format of a scrapbook or diary that is filled in by Little Mouse, this book exhorts, "You too can overcome your fears through the use of art!" A virtually encyclopedic list of fears follows, each on its own page, with plenty of space allotted for Little Mouse's response. Gravett augments these expansive collaged spreads with interactive goodies (a flap, a gatefold, a tip-in of an entire map). For example, when Little Mouse scrawls, "I don't like being alone, or in the dark," readers will learn from glancing at the upper-right corner that this feeling is called "Isolophobia (Fear of solitude)." The opposite page is pitch-black, and Little Mouse eyes it nervously. Other moments are more purely amusing: "aichmophobia" (the fear of knives) ushers in references to "Three Blind Mice." Whether or not they choose to face their own fears, kids will feel that a chord has been struck--and they'll savor spicing up their budding vocabularies. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Horn Book Review

(Primary) An opening note welcomes the reader to a self-help book called Emily Gravett's Big Book of Fears and recommends using the book's supposedly blank pages to "record and face your fear" via art and writing. But Little Mouse, pencil in paw, has gotten here first; readers follow him as he climbs, draws, quivers, and collages his way through the book in hand, scrawling out his anxieties on pages labeled "Isolophobia (Fear of solitude)" and "Whereamiophobia (Fear of getting lost)." The hapless mouse fears everything from heights to going to bed, but there's consolation in the end: as we see someone's feet leap onto a chair, he cheekily proclaims, "She's afraid of ME!" The visual and texual layers woven by Gravett's meticulous mixed-media illustrations blur the lines between the book and the mouse and his creations, and contain enough detail that multiple reads still won't reveal everything. Nursery rhyme references are familiar but fresh; nibbled pages and foldouts elegantly bridge fiction and reality. This clever book will engage and amuse kids and their grownups -- though perhaps not the faint of heart. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Under the guise of a self-help book whose instructions are obediently followed by a mouse taking notes on the pages, Gravett takes readers on an intense exploration of fear. Each page features one phobia. Carrying a full-sized (not mouse-sized) pencil, Little Mouse confronts various angsts (clinophobia, fear of going to bed; ablutophobia, fear of bathing), some tweaked for mouse-relevance (aichmophobia becomes fear of knives, as a circus is cancelled due to an unfortunate incident with a farmer's wife). Most existential are whereamiophobia (fear of getting lost) and isolophobia (fear of solitude and, here, fear of the darkness of a solid-black page). Creative multimedia artwork with a frenetic vibe includes collage, foldouts (maps, newspapers), cutouts (nibbled page corners abound) and expressive and aptly wild pencil strokes. Myriad details--such as a receipt on the back cover listing the book's condition as "Poor, scribbled in, rodent damage"--reinforce the setup. Timorous Mouse doesn't vanquish the worries but does weather the dangers, revealing a tiny final smile at an unexpected turnabout. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.