Saturday, October 13, 2012

Monsieur Rat by Federica Mossetti.

Monsieur Rat by Federica Mossetti.  Hardcover book with pictorial boards (no dust jacket) published by Black Dog Books 2008, unpaginated with colour photographs throughout.


“Monsieur Rat is a little rat with a big problem.  When a moustache experiment goes wrong, Monsieur Rat sets off on a journey that leads him to an unexpected destination.”

This book tackles some of the more difficult moments in one’s life, particularly in regards to facial hair… although for some reason I don’t think whiskers are hair… just checked on Wikipedia and apparently they are hair. So this rat encounters a problem with his whiskers in that the moustache experiment he has participated in has caused his whiskers to grow way too long.

In this photo you can see the whiskers being knitted by someone other than Monsieur Rat (not sure who this is but notice that the whiskers are a different colour to our hero).


Here Monsieur Rat is using his whiskers as a scarf.


I’ve chosen to write about Monsieur Rat because I think it’s such a lovely book.  Simple with wonderful photographs that you can’t help but smile at when you see them.  This is the sort of story that you would want your children to read.  I’ve just written something quite interesting here, which is what “you” as a parent (or appropriate adult) would want your children to read.  This of course often has little relevance to what children really want to read and is your taste in childrens literature, not theirs.  When selecting kids books I tend to pick things that a man in his 40s (…that’s me) finds appealing and interesting.  Lets face it, it’s adults that most often buy books for children, not the children themselves.  So my criteria for selection is “Do I think this looks good?".   If the answer is “Yes”, then I figure there will be other adults out there that will think the same.  I could of course be totally wrong and no one else likes Monsieur Rat other than me, but somehow I reckon the Rat could easily win many hearts and minds both young and old.

No comments:

Post a Comment