The Greentail Mouse

By Leo Lionni

Book Overview

Originally published in 1973, this is the offbeat fable of a city mouse who visits his peaceful country cousins and tells them about Mardi Gras in the city. The country mice are inspired to have their own Mardi Gras. And at first, it is fun wearing their masks with sharp teeth and tusks and scaring each other, but after a while, they begin believing that they really are ferocious animals. Leo Lionni's winsome mice cavort across big double-page spreads of oil paintings and tell a story about what is real and what is not that is just right for preschoolers. Reissued in hardcover in 2003, it now makes its debut in Dragonfly paperback.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307981517
• ISBN13: 9780307981516
• Release Date: January 2013
• Publisher: Dragonfly Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.8" x 8.7"
• Age Range: 3 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

The Greentail Mouse

I disagree with the first review...it is precisely the ambiguity of this tale that makes it so delightful and so easy to turn to again and again as we try to puzzle it out. I'm not sure we're meant to "know" everything, or would want to. The mystery, and ambiguity, of lived experience is the most "real" thing of all--and children get that. My students and I still haven't figured out The Greentail Mouse and we still enjoy trying.