Cute Mouse Little Brother 5: Mouse Little Brother, Mouse Little Brother

Author: Nakajima Yoshio (Text) Ueno Noriko (Illustrations)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: The mouse characters created by the couple Nakajima Yoshio and Ueno Noriko have been deeply loved by children since their debut in 1974. The book "Mouse's Little Shirt" alone has been reprinted 153 times. This series has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Japan Library Association Good Picture Book Award, the Japan Talkinkai Publishing Culture Picture Book Award, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare Children's Welfare Culture Award. It is not only a pinnacle of Japanese picture books but also a classic among world picture books.
A monkey asks Mouse to step on the scale. Mouse steps on it, but the pointer doesn’t move. The monkey steps on it, and the pointer jumps by one mark. The monkey points proudly at the scale and says, "Look, I’m heavier than you!" But then a pig comes, laughing and says, "Hahaha, that’s nothing!" The pig steps on the scale, and the pointer jumps by another mark. Just as the pig is about to feel proud, a lion appears, followed by even larger animals one after another, and the pointer jumps higher and higher in a clockwise direction.
Finally, under the kind invitation of the heaviest elephant, Mouse steps on the scale again. The pointer still reads zero, but it looks as if it jumps by one mark higher than the elephant’s. This time, it’s Mouse’s turn to feel proud.
In this book, the expressions of the animals are drawn with meticulous detail. The pride of feeling heavier than others, the surprise of feeling lighter, and the dynamic shift in status—from the monkey summoning Mouse on the front cover to Mouse summoning the monkey on the last page—are all vividly depicted. The psychological activities of the characters are fully expressed through the illustrations. Children can easily follow the story by turning the pages and enjoy the humor embedded in the work.
For young children, who may not yet have the experience of translating language into images, they can understand the story and enjoy the joy of reading by "reading" the pictures.