A young mouse has every right to be worried when her father brings home a "squirrel" in this pitch-perfect picture book and Indie Next List title. Mina is a dreamy, slightly anxious mouse whose imprudent father brings home "surprises from the outside world." She doesn't mind... until one day when he calls her outside to see his latest treasure, quite obviously a large, black-and-white cat. "It's a squirrel!" Mina's dad says with arm-flinging delight.
As with Pokko and the Drum, Matthew Forsythe brings to Mina a dry, droll humor and exquisite watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil illustrations. Patterns abound in the earth-toned pages and Mina's "obsessive reader" poses--on her belly on the floor, in a homemade tent--will feel exactly right to every bookworm lucky enough to find this treasure. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor