The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail by Richard Peck

Ahh, Animal stories.  There is just something about them that appeals to me.   Author/Illustrator duo of Richard Peck and Kelly Murphy are back in their latest book, The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail.  The last one I read  by Richard Peck was The Secrets at Sea, an adventure story about a family of mice that set forth on a ship bound for England on the Eve of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.  Interestingly enough, the Queen's diamond jubilee is also about to take place in The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, but the two plot lines don't seem to intersect.  I chose this book, well because I really wanted to figure out what was up with that mouses tail. 

I found the beginning of the story a little slow going, mostly due to the process of building the world that these mice live in  (which is the Royal Mews right next door to Buckingham Palace).  Peck also introduces "Mouse Minor," the guy with the question mark tail and explains why he has no name.  However, once Mouse Minor commits the worst two crimes a mouse can make the story begins to move along nicely.  Things culminate with Mouse Minor fleeing the Royal Mews and attempts  to try and find the Queen to see if she can tell him who he is and what his future has in store.  I'm just not sure if most readers will wait til the middle of the book for this, but I found it was worth it.  Overall, I found the story very cute and it fits into the other stories that I've read about mice.  The illustrations in The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail are very nicely detailed but I found that I enjoyed the ones that were a full color page much better then the ones which were in blue and white tones.  

My Copy for review was from the library