Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Once you know an author you love has died, each book of his/hers that you read becomes one less book to be read by that author–ever.  (Which is just sad.)  I finished Richard Peck’s The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail night before last, and that began that mental countdown for me, and–ugh.  Why can’t certain authors just live forever?  And yes, there are amazing new authors out there, but still.

The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail is the tale of a mouse who doesn’t know his name–they call him Mouse Minor at school, and his “aunt” who is raising him (he thinks it unlikely that they’re actually related) keeps telling him “Nameless is blameless” when he asks–or anything about his parentage; he decides to approach and ask Queen Victoria, whose diamond jubilee is days away.  Peck succeeds in imbuing the story with a British tone, although not the kind of British feel you get with a British author; if Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle had co-written The Tale of Despereaux with Kate DiCamillo, you might get Question Mark Tail‘s close cousin.  It’s amusing–funny seems too in-your-face a word for the sort of humor going on here–and fast moving, with more than one running joke that I particularly enjoyed.  My library lists it as a sequel to Secrets at Sea, which I don’t remember enough about to comment on; it’s not at all in the same vein as any of his Grandma Dowdel books, OR his ghost stories, but Richard Peck’s ability to write in several completely different styles is one of the impressive things about him.  If you like adventure tales (about animals!) that take place across the pond, this one’s for you.