Mouse Paint
By Ellen Stoll Walsh
Review by: Lori Plach
While the cat’s asleep the mice will play. These 3 white mice do more than just play, they discover they can make different colors by combining others.
The 3 curious mice leave their place on the white paper and see 3 jars of paint open. They each slip into a different color assuming that the paint is Mouse Paint. One goes into the red jar, while another into a yellow jar and the other into the blue. When climbing out of the jars, puddles are made. The red mouse steps into the yellow puddle and does a little dance, therefore, mixing the two colors and discovers the color orange. The yellow mouse dances in the blue puddle and the other mice see green. The blue mouse is not to be outdone, so he steps into the red pain and all three discover that blue and red make purple.
They soon realize that the paint is making their fur sticky and stiff, so they wash themselves down to a plain white in the first bowl that they find. Of course, the name on the side of the bowl says “CAT.” They go to work painting their paper instead of themselves. They use the 3 original colors of red, yellow and blue and the three they created of orange, green and purple. They decide to keep some of the paper white just the cat is unable to see them when they go back to their place on the paper.
The author and illustrator Ellen Stoll Walsh’s mice are enchanting. Children will delight in learning their colors while enjoying the antics of the mice. This book was noted as a selection in the Book-Of-The-Month Club. This is an excellent introduction to colors and the creation of other than just the primary colors.
