Seven Blind Mice

About the Book

This Caldecott Honor Book is gorgeous and it’s brilliant at presenting the concepts of color, numbers, and days of the week. Seven mice of different colors, set against a black background, encounter “a strange Something” nearby. On each day of the week, a different colored mouse, described as the “first,” “second,” and so on, visits the Something and guesses what it is. On the seventh day, the only female mouse puts together all the guesses, listing them as similes such as “wide as a cliff,” and figures out what the Something is.

Why this Book?

This book is quite possibly perfect. It’s elegant in design, illustration, and cadence. It’s also a good introduction to concepts and similes. To me, that it presents concepts so cleverly is a just side benefit–children enjoy it for its beauty and solving the mystery of the Something. You may know this story as a folk tale from India called “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Ed Young changes the tale and makes it even better for children. Don’t miss his Caldecott Medal winner, Lon Po Po.