The Mouse of Amherst

A mouse's-eye-view of Emily Dickinson

When a mouse named Emmaline takes up residence behind the wainscoting of Emily Dickinson's bedroom, she wonders what it is that keeps Emily scribbling at her writing table throughout the day and into the night. Emmaline sneaks a look, and finds that it's poetry! Inspired, Emmaline writes her own first poem and secretly deposits it on Emily's desk. Emily answers with another poem, and a lively exchange begins. In this charming and fanciful introduction to Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Spires demonstrates the power of poetry to express our deepest feelings, while Claire A. Nivola's delicate pencil drawings capture the intricacies of life in Emily's world. Included are eight of Dickinson's most loved poems, with seven corresponding poems by Emmaline that are sure to bring out the poet in any child.

"I am a mouse, a white mouse. My name is Emmaline. Before I met Emily, the great poet of Amherst, I was nothing more than a crumb gatherer, a cheese nibbler, a mouse-of-little-purpose. There was an emptiness in my life that nothing seemed to fill."

That is, until Emmaline the mouse takes up residence in the wall of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson's room in Amherst, Massachusetts. Emmaline spends her days happily observing the reclusive poet: "She seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once, fluttering through the house like a ghost, stirring up a batch of gingerbread in the kitchen, or walking in the garden, lost in a reverie." The mouse's life changes when a gust of wind blows one of Emily's poems her way. She blushes as she reads Emily's evocative words that so aptly capture her own feelings, and from then on is determined to be a poet herself. The exchange of poems between the two species of poet is truly marvelous, as eight of Emily Dickinson's poems are answered by seven of author Elizabeth Spires's (an award-winning poet herself). "I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you--Nobody--too? / Then there's a pair of us! / Don't tell! they'd banish us--you know!" is followed by Emmaline's "It matters what we think, / What words we put in ink, / It matters what we feel / What feelings we conceal." A near miss with the family cat, an unpleasant interlude with a thick-headed editor, and even a threatening stoat keep the story moving, but the real excitement lies in the deepening friendship between Emily and Emmaline... and in Spires's inventive portrayal of the process of self-expression and the power of words. Along the way, illustrator Claire A. Nivola's sweetly skritchy sketches reflect the shy demeanor of both Emily and Emmaline. A brief portrait of Emily Dickinson concludes the book, but readers will come away with a glimpse of the poet and her work that no biography could ever communicate. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson