THE MARVELOUS MOUSE MAN

A classic legend gets a more or less good-humored makeover with a happier ending. Plagued by mice—“ ‘What shall we do?’ the townsfolk cried. / ‘In spite of every thing we’ve tried, / They’ve covered all the countryside / And still they keep on coming! / Their manners are extremely rude; / They don’t show any gratitude; / And yet they gobble up our food / And clog up all the plumbing!’ ”—the residents of “Mousy Town” happily pay an oddly dressed stranger to wave his magic fan and lure the rodents away with deliciously cheesy odors. But then all the cats follow, and all the dogs, and finally all the children. What to do? Suddenly the Mouse Man has a sly look. Giving the tale a 19th-century setting, Forman combines soft lines and warm colors reminiscent of Jim LaMarche, with figures and details as finely drawn as Wendy Anderson Halperin’s, then casts a golden glow over every scene that suggests the benign resolution to come. And, perhaps harking back to her renowned A House Is a House for Me (1978), Hoberman provides one, in a child’s suggestion that a vagrant trickster might become a good neighbor, if only he had a house. A rollicking, readable remake from one of the best versifiers in the business, and a strong debut for the illustrator. (Picture book. 6-9)