The Mouse in My House is a level 1 easy reader in the We Both Read series. Like all the other We Both Read books, this one divides its text in half. The left-hand side of the page is to be read by an adult, while the right-hand side is reserved for the child. This division is explained in an introductory note and also signified by a set of circles. When it is the adult’s turn to read, the larger of the two circles is shown with a mouth, while the smaller remains empty. When it is the child’s turn, the smaller circle has the mouth and the larger has none. This visual cue is a nice touch that helps the new reader understand when it is his turn without having to know any complicated vocabulary to figure that out.
The Mouse in My House follows the hi-jinks that ensue when a boy finds a mouse living amongst his toys. The rhyming text talks about the various ways the family tries to chase the mouse away, and then follows the persistent mouse from the farm where he is released right back to the family’s home again. The story ends on a cute punchline that will amuse both parent and child. The problem, though, is that it takes too long to reach the ending, and the rhyming becomes more and more distracting as the plot progresses. In some places, entire lines sound forced and out of place, and it is obvious certain words were chosen just because they rhyme. This includes the introduction of a new character (Mailman Gus) only a few pages from the end of story, which threw even me for a bit of a loop!
I also noticed some inconsistencies in capitalization of the words mom and dad. Every time “mom” or “dad” is used as a proper name, it should begin with a capital letter. When we talk about “my mom” or “her dad,” then there is no capitalization because we are using the words as plain old ordinary nouns. The first half of the book applies this rule incorrectly; then suddenly, in the second half, capital Ms and Ds start to appear. I realize most new readers won’t pick up on that, but it is a problem when a book designed to support kids in learning to read is uncertain of proper usage. In fact, this book probably could have provided some good teachable moments about proper nouns if not for this glaring error.
I often recommend the We Both Read books to my library patrons because I think kids really benefit from sharing their reading experiences with the adults in their lives, and because they do offer such great opportunities for recognizing sight words and gaining confidence reading those words aloud. This book will not be a go-to title for me next time a parent asks me for a recommendation. Actually, now I’m tempted to read some more titles in the series to find out whether other titles contain these errors. (I happened to flip open to the first page of Sharks by Sindy McKay and noticed a subject-verb agreement issue in the very first sentence. Thus, I am concerned.)
I borrowed The Mouse in my House from my local public library.
2 Comments on Easy Reader Radar: The Mouse in My House by Paul Orshoski, last added: 9/1/2012
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I'm not really a fan of these books - I think the stories are bland and the art has nothing to recommend it. I am not surprised that there are grammatical errors. However, our town's 4K program and most of our parents are really pushing their young children to learn to read and the school's reading specialists politely requested we purchase these books. So I bought a ton of them and I just look away when I walk past the easy readers.
The parents here like them as well, which I assume is why my system continues to purchase them. I was pretty surprised by how poorly written this one was, though, and I agree - the art is not appealing. It's too bad, because I think the format works well for a lot of people, but the quality is just very low.