Reviewed by Natalie Tsang for TeensReadToo.com
Twelve-year-old Emiline Orelia is the best mousekeeper in Old Town, but wants more than anything to become a mousehunter.
While she's cleaning the cages of the Blinking Mouse of Bobo and the Rook-winged Mouse of Scarlet Island, she dreams of accomplishing greater things than maintaining mice. Even though she works for Isaiah Lovelock, the most famous mouse collector in the world, there aren't many opportunities to make a name for herself.
When Mousebeard, the fiercest pirate in all seventeen seas, meddles one too many times with Lovelock, her employer hires Devlin Drewshank, a buccaneer, to capture him. Emiline impresses Drewshank with her mousing abilities and wins a place upon his ship. However, instead of starting her own adventure, she gets roped into an exciting but dangerous conspiracy of illegal mouse trading, deadly curses, and lots of double-crossing.
Alex Milway's THE MOUSEHUNTER is a magical romp through pirate ships and brigand-ridden cities. In Old Town, the Dead Collector, Mr. Droob, has an assistant to help take care of all the bodies that wash ashore.
Though this book is filled with mice, there's nothing mousy about it! Milway creates a fantastic world where people live and die for rare breeds of mice. The novel is populated with an eccentric cast of human characters, from the beautiful and manipulative Lady Beatrice Pettifogger to the brilliant and slightly bonkers Algernon Mountjack.
Young readers will love the resourceful and hardworking Emiline, her trusty grey mouse, Portly, and her best friend and fellow mouser, Scratcher. In addition, each chapter is introduced with an entry of Isaiah Lovelock's The Mousehunter's Almanac and features many of Alex Milway's own illustrations.
Five Stars!
Twelve-year-old Emiline Orelia is the best mousekeeper in Old Town, but wants more than anything to become a mousehunter.
While she's cleaning the cages of the Blinking Mouse of Bobo and the Rook-winged Mouse of Scarlet Island, she dreams of accomplishing greater things than maintaining mice. Even though she works for Isaiah Lovelock, the most famous mouse collector in the world, there aren't many opportunities to make a name for herself.
When Mousebeard, the fiercest pirate in all seventeen seas, meddles one too many times with Lovelock, her employer hires Devlin Drewshank, a buccaneer, to capture him. Emiline impresses Drewshank with her mousing abilities and wins a place upon his ship. However, instead of starting her own adventure, she gets roped into an exciting but dangerous conspiracy of illegal mouse trading, deadly curses, and lots of double-crossing.
Alex Milway's THE MOUSEHUNTER is a magical romp through pirate ships and brigand-ridden cities. In Old Town, the Dead Collector, Mr. Droob, has an assistant to help take care of all the bodies that wash ashore.
Though this book is filled with mice, there's nothing mousy about it! Milway creates a fantastic world where people live and die for rare breeds of mice. The novel is populated with an eccentric cast of human characters, from the beautiful and manipulative Lady Beatrice Pettifogger to the brilliant and slightly bonkers Algernon Mountjack.
Young readers will love the resourceful and hardworking Emiline, her trusty grey mouse, Portly, and her best friend and fellow mouser, Scratcher. In addition, each chapter is introduced with an entry of Isaiah Lovelock's The Mousehunter's Almanac and features many of Alex Milway's own illustrations.
Five Stars!
