Cute Little Mouse 6: Here we go again! Little Mouse's undershirt

Author: Takao Nakajima (Text) Noriko Ueno (Illustrations)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: The mouse brothers, created by the couple Takao Nakajima and Noriko Ueno, have been beloved by children since their debut in 1974. Just the book My Little Red Shirt has been reprinted 153 times. This series has received prestigious awards such as the Japan Library Association’s Good Picture Book Award, the Japan Talk Mirai Publishing Culture Picture Book Award, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Children’s Welfare Culture Award. It is not only a pinnacle of Japanese picture books but also a classic among world picture books.
"I won’t lend it to anyone anymore!" This line appears on the title page. It might leave readers unfamiliar with My Little Red Shirt and My Little Red Shirt Again very confused. However, once readers have enjoyed the first two books, they will deeply understand the mouse brother’s feelings. Upon seeing this line, they will quickly recall the fate of the mouse brother’s red shirt from the previous stories and become curious about the story of this red shirt. With this curiosity, they can instantly immerse themselves in the story world and may even pick up the first two books to compare and contrast.
The mouse brother makes a big decision, but this time, a little snake comes first. After being rejected, the snake looks very sad, and the mouse brother softens his heart, letting the snake wear the shirt. However, when the snake puts it on, it looks terrible, and the snake leaves crying. This is the foreshadowing in the book. Next, the familiar animals—duck, lion, one after another—appear. Although the mouse brother refuses, the shirt is still stretched longer and longer. The mouse brother reluctantly drags the stretched shirt back. This illustration is similar to the small images on the copyright pages of the previous books, so readers already familiar with the rhythm of the Cute Mouse series might think the story is over at first, feeling sad and anxious for the mouse brother. In reality, this is just the first act.
Looking further to the right, there comes the mouse sister! This illustration is set against a blue background, as if the mouse sister is stepping onto the stage from the side. She has knitted a hat for the mouse brother, and the story begins with the same opening line as My Little Red Shirt. Readers who have enjoyed My Little Red Shirt already know that the animal friends are just there to try on the shirt, so the text directly reads: "It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t look good." This continuity and repetition are one of the features of the Cute Mouse series.
As for the hat, it doesn’t matter who comes to try it on. The mouse brother looks relieved and proud, and the bigger the animal, the worse it looks in the hat, making the mouse brother’s proud expression even more evident. At the end, the little snake reappears. The mouse brother kindly lets the snake wear the hat, but unexpectedly, the snake wears it as if it were a shirt and happily sings away. In the side panel, the mouse brother is scolded by the mouse sister, scratching his head shyly while shaking his head (the curved lines on both sides of the mouse brother’s head represent shaking, a comic technique). What does he want to express? This is also a deliberate hint left for the readers.
Different readers will have different feelings when they observe the detailed expressions of the mouse brother and the other animals, depending on their own experiences. Those with rich life experiences will recall similar feelings they’ve had, while younger readers with limited life experience may not fully grasp it at first. However, as they gain more real-life experiences and accumulate indirect experiences from picture books, they will gradually develop their emotions and imagination, leading to a deeper understanding.