ANONYMOUSE

If Banksy drew a picture book, it probably wouldn’t look like this tale of a mouse graffiti artist.

The pictures in this story are just as funny and mysterious as Banksy’s street art, but they’re more jokey and less obviously political. The anonymous mouse who gives the book its title will paint a bullseye on a lamppost, so dogs can aim at it, or an image of Batman in his boxer shorts. Some of the murals are sweet or wistful, like a field of flowers painted on an array of satellite dishes. They have a huge influence on the other animals in the story. Suddenly, a spider is weaving a web in rainbow colors, and a bird is leaving a path of green footprints across the park. Pirolli’s illustrations of the animals are as funny and mysterious as the works of art. The spider’s eight eyes are so frightening they’re sort of lovable. The humans who appear in the background, in muted colors, come from a variety of races and cultures. The end of the story is both sweet and wistful: Anonymouse leaves the city and its animals on their own, with no explanation, except for one line of text from the author: “The world is his canvas.” Readers may also be left feeling a bit melancholy, but they’ll want to make the world their canvas. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 86.3% of actual size.)

Banksy might be flattered by this book, but he probably wouldn’t admit it in public.