Birthday Mice!
Birthday Mice! is a 2002 children's book written by Bethany Roberts and illustrated by Doug Cushman. Part of the informally marketed Holiday Mice series, it received mixed reviews.
Synopsis
When their son turns two, the holiday-celebrating mouse family of four holds a birthday for him in a forest clearing, set to a cowboy theme.
Reception
Reviews for Birthday Mice!, the fifth title with Roberts and Cushman's characters, were mixed. Kirkus Reviews said, "Occasional rhymes and a musical cadence to the text—with its oompah repetition of words—make this a lively performance piece". Conversely, Eileen Sheridan wrote in the School Library Journal: "This is a difficult book to read aloud; the rhyming text doesn't scan, and sometimes the rhymed word doesn't appear until pages later. Cushman's animals are personable, four panels is bound to confuse preschoolers, who will see four separate mice.... Not a first purchase." In separate reviews, The Horn Book criticized the "forced rhyming text" and "uneven" rhymes which the "festive watercolors" helped to compensate.