Review: I’m Not a Mouse

I’m Not a Mouse
Author & Illustrator: Evgenia Golubeva
Child’s Play International
Ages: 3-8 years old

[A]n adventure as Olivia suffers through a series of unfortunate situations in which to metamorphose from a kid into a mouse. 

When Olivia’s mom calls her by her nickname/pet name, “Mouse,” she turns into a mouse.  Therein begins an adventure as Olivia suffers through a series of unfortunate situations in which to metamorphose from a kid into a mouse. 

The illustrations are adorable, colorful pictures of diverse families. I loved seeing a black girl protagonist, a friend in a wheelchair, and a wide variety of families represented. Particularly lovely was the funny and inventive set of pet-name-metamorphoses towards the end of the book.

There are some internal logic issues in this story.  The rules of the pet name changes are unclear, unexplained, and inconsistent. Can Olivia control the changes? How did they start? Can Olivia’s mom see what happens? It’s a problem that will likely only bug a small percentage of kids/parents, but count me among their number.

Ultimately, this is a charming idea, stars some lovely pictures, and is a sweet story with a few plot holes.  Watch for Mom to get her comeuppance at the end . . . .

Ages: 4-6, fun for the absurdity and the love shining through.



I’m Not a Mouse (Support an Independent Bookstore)
I’m Not a Mouse (Amazon)*

More books for this Age Group can be found here.

My thanks to Child’s Play International for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.

Please, leave comments! I love a HEALTHY exchange of ideas. After all, critical thinking is essential to life.

Emily WorkContributor
Emily is a mom, a book-lover, a lawyer, and has been fascinated by politics and theater from a very young age. The mom part has been both the most challenging and the most rewarding of her pursuits, and it has justified the reading and re-reading of ever-so-many kid books over the last 14 years. Emily cares way more about government policy than most regular people, and has been known to watch C-span on-purpose for long periods of time. Also, she has opinions. Far too many opinions for a girl, as she has frequently been told, to no avail.

*Amazon Associates earn from qualifying purchases.

Leave a Reply