Summary
It's the day of Momo's first piano recital. As she nervously waits for her turn to play, she tells herself, "I'll be okay ... I'll be okay ..." Then she hears a voice nearby, also saying, "I'll be okay ... I'll be okay ..." It's a mouseling! And the little mouse is nervous about her first performance, too. The mouseling invites Momo through a small door backstage, where Momo is amazed to find a miniature theater filled with an audience of finely dressed mice there to watch singers, dancers and circus performers! When it's the mouseling's turn, Momo agrees to accompany her on piano. The mouse audience is so appreciative! But then, as she rises to take her bow, Momo is surprised to discover --- it isn't a mouse audience at all!
Here's another magical, dreamlike picture book from Akiko Miyakoshi, the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author-illustrator. The imaginative narrative is woven around the common childhood experience of anxiety, felt by performers but also by every child who faces a new life challenge. Momo serves as a wonderful example to children, using the power of her imagination to understand and work through her feelings. Even the youngest readers will be able to follow this story through the beautiful and fantastically detailed illustrations, which perfectly capture Momo's emotions as she transitions from the real to the imagined and back again.
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--This Japanese import by the creator of The Way Home in the Night captures a young girl's interior world as she experiences the emotions surrounding her first performance. Soft pencil, charcoal, and acrylic gouache compositions are rendered in a controlled palette, initially comprised of black and white settings with Momo's dress ranging from a deep red to a brilliant pink, depending on the light. As the round-faced, dark-haired girl waits backstage, heart pounding, she reminds herself: "I'll be okay." When the child actually hears the words uttered, she discovers a nervous mouse at her feet, attired in a coordinating dress. The rodent invites the girl to her recital, offering reassurance that there is time. As Momo enters a little door, she finds herself behind an audience of well-dressed mice. Miyakoshi adds quiet greens and yellows, and awe-inspiring acts depicted from dramatic perspectives ensue: acrobats form a tall pyramid, a magician transforms his partner into a butterfly. When a chorus of mice sings, the visitor notes that their timing is not perfect, but they are having fun. Momo forgets her own worries as she accompanies her friend; her acknowledgement of applause occurs before a human audience. Miyakoshi excels at visualizing a young person's vulnerability in the face of moments that loom large. The idea that performing can be stressful, absorbing, less-than-perfect, and thrilling are all conveyed through a captivating story, rather than a heavy-handed message. VERDICT Honoring imagination, this enchanting fantasy offers alternatives and antidotes to anxiety.--Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wearing a red party dress and a grim expression, Momo waits to perform in her first piano recital. She's nervous ("Momo's heart is racing"), and she stands in the auditorium's wings, talking to herself: "I'll be okay.... I'll be okay." Suddenly she spots a "mouseling," also clad in a frock, who invites Momo to hear its own recital. "Don't worry, there's still time until your turn!" Threading her way through a dark passageway, Momo emerges in a diminutive theater filled with mice and watches as performers put on a dazzling show of dance and song. Miyakoshi (The Way Home in the Night) draws fanciful spreads in dark, shadowy charcoal with jewel-toned accents. Beautifully realized, they will divert readers just as they divert Momo, who soon finds herself playing the piano and singing for the mouse performers. Just as suddenly, she's back where she should be, on her own stage, performing with confidence. Many stories about children in stressful situations stay firmly in the real world. This story (and its natural-sounding uncredited translation from the Japanese) fulfills the wish of reluctant recital players (and some nonrecitalists as well) to find themselves in another world entirely. Ages 3--7. (Sept.)
Horn Book Review
Momo, a little girl, stands in the darkened wings of a concert hall await-ing her turn in a piano recital. She's nervous. When she's invited by a mouse to pass the time by attending the mouse concert in the adjoining auditorium, she passes through a tiny door and finds herself in a parallel world. Momo and mouse, both dressed in their prettiest frocks and Mary Janes, enjoy a variety show with circus performers, choirs, and ballet. When the mouse goes onstage to sing, Momo lends her support as an accompanist. On the final two spreads, as the human audience bursts into applause, we discover that Momo was playing in her own recital the whole time. Perhaps she was re-imagining her audience as mice in a tried-and-true stage-fright prevention technique? The pleasure here lies in the mouse detail. Miyakoshi's crowd scenes of mouse audience and orchestra, executed in soft charcoal and pencil with just hints of color, are rich with variety, personality, and micro-narratives, the intensity of the prima ballerina set against an audience whose members cuddle, drink, trim their whiskers, eat pastries, fiddle with their programs. A deft use of page design, pacing, and composition rounds out the art of a just-right picture book. Sarah Ellis November/December 2019 p.72(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In this Japanese import, a child imagines a fantastical mouse theater as a means of overcoming her piano-recital anxiety.A glowering girl walks grimly forward on the title page, sheet music tucked under arm. Her red velvet dress, both celebratory and somber, reflects the duality of the occasion. As she repeats a calming mantra, she spies a "mouseling" doing the same. The latter invites the pixie-haired Momoa young Japanese girlto her mouse theater, where acrobats, dancers, and an orchestra perform. When it is the mouseling's turn to go on stage, Momo graciously offers to accompany her on piano. As they fill the hall with music and joy, Momo realizes she has actually played at her own piano recital, and she stands to the audience's applause. Using pencil, charcoal, and gouache, the artist uses a monochromatic palette to skillfully capture theatrical light and staging. Red and other, more-muted colors easily identify the protagonist and act as accents. As the fantasy world of mice and their performances is introduced, Miyakoshi's artwork opens up into a lavish rendering of an exquisite mouse theater. Unfortunately, the visual density of the mouse world and the simplified interpretation of the human worldin particular the styling of Momo's faceare not seamlessly merged. However, the beauty of the mice and their environment is a feast for the eyes.A soothing, fanciful adventure for those fretting about an upcoming performance. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Momo is apprehensive as she prepares backstage for her first piano recital. Then she meets a tiny mouseling who is nervously readying for her own recital. Momo follows the mouse through a hole in the wall, emerging into a miniature version of the theater with an audience full of anthropomorphic mice. There she forgets her fear in order to aid her little friend with her performance. It's not until the pair take their bows to a rousing ovation that Momo realizes she's in front of her human crowd. Miyakoshi (The Way Home in the Night, 2017) conjures an edgy magic through dense charcoal spreads. Momo's world is achromatic color comes through only in the red of her dress and cheeks until the mouse world introduces yellows and blues, as a series of circus performers lighten Momo's heart. The mice, anatomically realistic despite being dressed in human formalwear, capture a potentially unnerving duality of weird and wondrous, but their friendly role in helping Momo through her relatable fears will win over less-skittish readers.--Ronny Khuri Copyright 2019 Booklist
